


My Heart Beats For You

by Destery_Gutterson



Category: Labyrinth (1986)
Genre: Adventure, F/M, Fantasy, Freeform, Labyrinth - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-08-09
Updated: 2013-09-04
Packaged: 2017-12-22 22:12:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 29,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/918625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Destery_Gutterson/pseuds/Destery_Gutterson
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sarah wishes for the Goblin King to take her away when dealing with an abusive boyfriend. Will she be forced to stay or will she be allowed to leave?  With Jareth being nice to her...will she want to?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Back To The Labyrinth!

This is my first Labyrinth fanfic and it's for my friend Jo, who asked me to write it after we watched the movie and went to a Labyrinth themed party.

WARNING: There is small bit of domestic abuse in the first part of the chapter, so I am sorry you have to read it, but it is part of the plot for a little bit. It won't feature in the story at all after the first chapter, I promise, though mentions of it made be made.

I do not own the Labyrinth or any of its characters. That honor goes to Jim Henson.

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There are always moments in your life where you make a decision and it completely changes the course of your entire life. Reading a worn red book that your mother left you, for instance and choosing to believe in the creatures in it. Wishing away your baby brother because you were frustrated with your life and then choosing to win him back from the Goblin King who took him. Sarah Williams was about to have another one of those moments in her life.

The day had honestly started out like any other day of her life, Sarah went to work, picked up groceries for dinner on the way home, then tidied up the apartment while dinner was cooking, often talking to Ripley. Ripley was a tiny goblin who showed up on the end of Sarah's bed one night after she had defeated the Labyrinth and after hearing how the other goblins picked on him, hadn't had the heart to send back to the Goblin Kingdom. So he stayed with her, through the rest of high school, through college and her string of messy breakups. Sarah was always grateful that Ripley was around after her most recent boyfriend had broken up with her. The eight inch high goblin could always make her feel better, always reminding her that there were always more men out there. And that a certain Goblin King was still sitting in his castle. Sarah always ignored that bit of advice. Ripley had been encouraging her more and more lately to call on Jareth, ever since she had gotten involved with her latest boyfriend- Mark.

Mark was, in short, an abusive bastard. Sarah had tried to leave him once, just once. The bruises she got was nothing compared to the fright she felt when he threatened to go after her family, Toby in particular. To keep Mark happy Sarah learned to tread lightly and attempted perfection in the smallest things. Impossible of course, as the marks on her arms would show.

Today though, Sarah made the decision to buy a David Bowie CD she didn't yet own and put it on while she cleaned the living room. She had found David Bowie several months after saving Toby from the Labyrinth and fell in love with his voice. She told herself that just because he sounded almost like the Goblin King when he sang had nothing to do with her love of his songs.

I could escape this feeling, with my china girl  
I feel a wreck without my, little china girl  
I hear her heart beating, loud as thunder  
Saw the stars crashing

I'm a mess without my, little china girl  
Wake up mornings where's my, little china girl  
I hear hearts beating, loud as thunder  
I saw the stars crashing down

Sarah couldn't help but dance around the room with her feather duster in one hand, the other occasionally flipping her long hair over one shoulder. Ripley was also doing his version of dancing on the coffee table, which looked like, in Sarah's opinion, he was having a seizure. Laughing as she spun around, Sarah completely forgot about the chicken in the oven, too focused on the song.

My little china girl  
You shouldn't mess with me  
I'll ruin everything you are  
I'll give you television  
I'll give you eyes of blue  
I'll give you men who want to rule the world

Sarah stopped dancing and tilted her head at the stereo, the verse hitting a little too close to her memories of the Goblin King. He had warned her as well, in the same tone of voice once. The small connection she made from the song to the King was apparently enough to invite memories of his wild hair and smirking face into her mind. Images of his tight pants and leather gloves caused a shiver to go down her spin, while the thought of his riding crop forced her to bite down on her lower lip. She was sure he would know how to use it correctly. Before that scene could make its way into her head, the front door slammed open and Sarah was startled out of her daydreaming. Green eyes widened with fright as she caught sight of an obviously irked Mark coupled with the smell of burning food. A sound slipped out of her mouth as she turned and ran into the kitchen, grabbing a towel to cover her hand as she yanked the burnt chicken and its pan out of the oven. A whimper came out as she felt a large hand drop down and grab one of her wrists, which she struggled against as soon as she realized it was trying to press her bare hand against the hot pan.

Though she struggled as hard as she could, Sarah just was no match for Mark's strength and a scream tore from her lips as she felt the hot pan against her flesh. Her hand was held there for several seconds before Mark allowed her to tear it away, and a smirk was easily visible on his face when she whirled around to look at him. Almost without thinking about it, her unblistered hand came up and made contact with his cheek, causing the smirk to vanish. An incredibly pissed off expression replaced it before Mark's hand came up and grabbed Sarah by the neck. Her hand gripped at his wrist, nails digging in as she tried to pry it off so she could breathe. As her vision started to darken she noticed two things. Ripley's panicked expression and the fact the Mark was pushing her face towards the burning pan.

Using the last of her breath she managed to whisper, almost inaudibly, "I wish the Goblin King would take me away, right now."

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Jareth was sitting at the top of his tower, spinning dreams into crystals when he felt it. The barely there tug that had been occurring for years. It was so commonplace anymore though, that he ignored it. When it first started occurring, he had been worried. It felt as though he was being pulled, but didn't know where. An unsettling feeling for the Goblin King to be sure. The feeling of the tugging was comforting at times, always on the edge of being familiar to the King. Settling back against the wall, Jareth continued to spin dreams into his crystals to later send up to mortals in the Aboveground. He had spinning a pretty dream about pixies when suddenly the tugging sensation sharpened and he knew. He knew exactly who had been tugging at him over the years. A wave of feelings that was half longing and half irritation crashed over him before he heard it, clear as a bell and as loud as if he had been standing in front of her when she uttered it.

"I wish the Goblin King would come and take me away, right now."

With a smirk at the invitation, Jareth dropped the dream and teleported himself straight to Sarah. The sight he was greeted with was not one he had expected. Sarah looking desperate for him, perhaps. Or shocked that he wishes still worked. But not Sarah unconscious, being held roughly by a man while a goblin stood near her screaming its little fool head off. The man looked shocked by Jareth's sudden appearance and pulled Sarah against his chest, causing the king's eyes to narrow. The little goblin to the opportunity to wave his hands and capture Jareth's attention.

"Kingy! The bad man be hurting Sarah! Trying to burn her all up!"

Mismatched eyes whipped back to the man holding Sarah, fury obvious in them and one glove hand raised up. A simple snap of his fingers sent the mortal flying back into the wall, sending out a cloud of plaster dust while Jareth went and picked up Sarah, who had fallen to the ground. Her eyes were half open and she smiled faintly at him before tucking her face against his neck. A small smile formed on the king's lips as he held the woman tighter, but disappeared once he set eyes on the small goblin again.

"And what are you doing here?" he asked in a cold tone.

"Ripley been living with Sarah since she be leaving Kingy's labyrinth! Sarah be saying I could stay with her for always if I's be wanting to!" the creature told him proudly, a smile on its face.

One eyebrow arched up as Jareth looked between the goblin and the woman in his arms, and his eyes took on an amused glint. "What a curious girl you are, Sarah."

Glancing at the goblin, Jareth sighed and motioned him over, "I'm taking her back with me, so if you're coming, let's go."

The goblin squealed with happiness and launched itself off of the counter and onto Sarah, clingy tightly to her shirt. Rolling his eyes at the goblin, Jareth teleported them back to his kingdom, straight into his bedroom. After placing Sarah down on his bed, the Goblin King ran a gloved hand through his wild hair.

"You are always a surprise, Sarah."

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When Sarah woke up it was to a blinding pain in her hand and the sight of Ripley standing on her stomach with what looked like a letter opener held in his hands like a sword. She smiled briefly at the sight before turning her gaze to her hand and grimacing at the blistered mess her palm was.

"What a bastard," she muttered, scaring Ripley into falling off his perch.

"Aaah! Oh Sarah! You's be awake now," the little goblin yelled while wrapping his arms around her uninjured hand. "I was worried!"

"I'll be fine, Ripley. I just…need a phone to call the cops on Mark," Sarah said as she looked around, finally noticing she was not in her bedroom… or in any room of her apartment. A quiet sense of dread filled her as she noticed the lavish decorations about the room and the many paintings on the wall of what looked like places in… the Labyrinth. "Ripley… where am I?"

"We be back in the Labyrinth! Sarah wished for Kingy to come get her right now and Kingy came! Used his magickes to send bad Mark through the wall before he be saving Sarah!" The little goblin was very excited and thrust his letter opener sword a few times to punctuate his reply.

"Fuck," Sarah muttered and dropped her head down into her uninjured hand, eyes slipping closed only to snap back open when she heard a chuckle and a familiar voice drawl out from across the room.

"Such language, dear Sarah."

A squeak escaped her mouth as she turned her body towards the voice, one hand moving unconsciously to grab Ripley and push him behind her. The Goblin King raised his eyebrow at her protection of a goblin, a smirk making itself known on his face. He practically strutted across the room to the bed and dropped down next to Sarah, closer than necessary, holding up a glass bottle with a thick blue liquid inside it.

Trying to scoot away without him noticing, Sarah stared at the bottle, "What is it?"

"For your hand, I imagine it hurts quite a bit," Jareth said with an amused look in his eyes.

Watching the Goblin King warily, Sarah slowly reached out and took the bottle from his hand, then pulled out the cork. She sniffed it cautiously before glancing at Ripley, who had climbed onto her leg and was swaying in place with a smile.

"Is it safe, Ripley?" she asked. The little goblin nodded vigorously, giving Sarah the courage to use the gift from the Goblin King; who was watching their exchange with a highly amused and interested expression.

"Tell me Sarah, when exactly did you acquire one of my goblins as a companion?" Jareth questioned as Sarah poured the blue potion over her hand, startling her enough to spill some of it on the bed beneath her.

"I… he followed me home, after I beat the Labyrinth. I didn't mind him, he wasn't a troublemaker," Sarah murmured as she stared down at the small puddle of blue in her hand, "Hey, is this supposed to be doing something? I think it might be expired."

Jareth reached out and grabbed her wrist, pulling it closer to him, then rolled his eyes and used his teeth to pull off the other hand's black glove. He let the leather fall from his mouth to his lap while using his newly freed finger to start rubbing the potion into her skin. Sarah jumped slightly at his touch and tried to pull her hand back, but immediately stilled when she realized the burning pain in her hand was slowly disappearing.

"You could have just told me to rub it in," she muttered, causing Jareth's lips to twitch up into a smirk.

"Yes, I could have. However, doing it myself is much more enjoyable."

The smugness of his tone coupled with the arrogant smirk made Sarah's eye twitch and the second the blue liquid was absorbed into her skin she yanked her hand out of his grasp. Quickly standing up and moving several steps away from the bed, she completely missed the frown that turned down the Goblin King's lips.

"Look, I get that I wished myself here and I am really grateful that you saved me from my boyfriend, but I want to go home now," she said, hands resting on her hips as she turned to stare at Jareth. Sarah had to resist the urge to turn and run as the Goblin King slowly rose from the bed, cold fury filling his eyes.

"No. Stupid girl. That's not how it works. You have to have someone run the Labyrinth for you if you want to leave," Jareth took a step towards Sarah, who quickly backed away. "Even if you had someone to run it for your freedom, do you really think I would let you go back to someone who tried to kill you?"

"He wasn't… he wouldn't. He would have stopped just to prove a point and if I don't go back…" Sarah trailed off as she looked down at the ground, gathering up her courage, "If you won't let me run the Labyrinth for my freedom, you have to give someone close to me the chance to. There has to be some kind of rule saying that you can't keep people here against their will if someone is willing to run the Labyrinth."

Jareth smiled and quickly moved forward until he was looming over her, hands reaching out to grab her wrists to keep her from retreating, "So you think you know the rules of the Labyrinth? Well you're wrong. If someone wishes themselves here, they are here to stay. I do not have to give anyone the option to run for their freedom."

Sarah's face fell and she hung her head, sadness evident for Jareth to see. He sighed and released his grip on her wrists before running one hand over his face.

"I will make you a deal," he said in a reluctant tone, watching as her head raised back up and her face took on a hopeful expression.

"Your terms?"

"I will offer the chance to run for you to one human and one human only. If they decline, you stay here indefinitely. If they run but give up, you stay indefinitely. If they run but fail to make it in time, you will stay here with me, but will be allowed visits to the Aboveground for periods no longer than a week in length unless otherwise discussed when said visits occur," Jareth outlined his terms, and smiled inwardly as disbelief clearly made itself known on her face.

"You would let me go visit the aboveground if my champion failed?" she asked, something close to awe in her voice.

"I am not a monster, Sarah. Just because I have been cruel at times in the past does not mean I am always so. I will give you… thirteen hours to choose your champion. You may stay here in my bedroom until the time is up, or explore the castle. You will not find any doors that will lead you outside until after the thirteen hours are up and I come for your answer, or you find me and give me your answer early."

Sarah's eyes widened as she looked around the room, her voice coming out in a higher than normal pitch, "Your bedroom? This is… your room?"

Smirking, Jareth nodded," None of the guest rooms were clean enough or worthy of your stay in them while you were unconscious. I will fix that in the thirteen hours I have given you."

The Goblin King turned and walked towards the door, almost reaching it before Sarah yelled out," Hey! I never got to lay out my terms of our deal!"

"So close," Jareth whispered to himself before turning back to Sarah, a smirk twisting his lips. "I was hoping you would not realize that."

"If my champion does not give up and gets here in time, you will return me to the Aboveground. With the power to call on someone to bring me back here for visits no longer than a week unless previously discussed," Sarah said with a smirk, mimicking Jareth's terms with an almost mocking tone.

"You wish to come back to the Labyrinth, Sarah?"

"To see my friends, yes. But I don't want to have to stay permanently."

Jareth's smirk widened and he quickly crossed the room, grabbing her hand in his still gloveless one. "Your terms are agreeable and now the deal is sealed. I will see you when it is time for your champion's name to be revealed."

The Goblin King then snapped his fingers and summoned his glove from the bed, then disappeared from in front of her in a shower of glitter. Sarah looked over at Ripley, who was standing on the edge of the bed, eyes wide.

"Somehow, Ripley, I feel as though I just made a very big mistake…"

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Sarah couldn't help it, the temptation was just too much for her to bear and within ten minutes of him leaving, she was in Jareth's massive closet. She browsed through the racks of clothing with interest, until she came to a familiar shimmering blue jacket. Pulling it from its hanger, Sarah held it up to the light, admiring how the light hit it. Ripley sat on her shoulder, giving the jacket a curious look.

"He wore this for me once, Ripley," she murmured quietly, pulling the jacket close to her chest.

"Shiny!" Ripley shouted and tried to grab at the jacket, which Sarah quickly moved out of his grasp. She put it back on the hanger and smoothed out a few wrinkles before leaving the closet, not wanting to know what would happen if Jareth found out a goblin had been touching his clothes.

"He said I could explore the castle, do you want to?" she asked the tiny goblin, who nodded and pointed towards the doors. Sarah smiled and headed to them, peeking out into the hallway before deciding it was safe and slipping from the room. She debated for a minute before following the nearest hallway on the right, having seen sunlight shining from it. Tall windows lined the hallway and gave a view of the Labyrinth and she paused to look out of one for several minutes.

"You know, before all I wanted to do was beat the Labyrinth as fast as possible. I don't think I ever really took the time to see how amazing it was. One would have to be incredibly clever to be able to design and walk the Labyrinth without getting lost…"

"Kingy walks in it lots! Changes parts he don't like, too! Makes more trapses for runners to fall into!" Ripley said happily.

Sarah frowned and looked at the goblin on her shoulder, an interested look expression coming over her features," Sometimes I forget that you lived here, Ripley. You must know a lot about the Labyrinth."

"Yeah, yeah! Ripley lived under the stones! Learned the tunnels to the castle and all through the gardens!"

Sarah nodded and continued on her way, an idea forming in her head. She fell into a daydreaming state and didn't pay attention to where she was walking until she was suddenly falling down a flight of stairs, a terrified shriek escaping her lips as she headed towards the bottom. When she landed in a heap at the bottom, the first thing she did was look for the little goblin who had been on her shoulder. She found him easily enough, as he was standing a few steps above her, then sighed with relief. The groaned when she realized what room she was in. The Escher room, of course.

"Brilliant, the one room I can't get out of," Sarah huffed as she laid back on the ground at the bottom of the stairs, eyes closed.

"It does take practice," said a silky voice and Sarah quickly opened her eyes to see the Goblin King standing on the ceiling above her. She quickly noticed that something was off about Jareth, but before she could open her mouth to ask, it hit her. A concerned expression, so alien on his face was clear. Sarah hated the sight of it and for unknown (Okay, she totally knew why) reasons, she wanted it to be gone instantly. So she jumped to her feet and dusted off her jeans, then ran a hand through her hair.

"That was fun, but I'd rather not do it again," she said as Jareth dropped from the ceiling, landing on his feet like a cat.

"I would rather you did not do that again, either. Are you injured?"

"Nah, I'm good," Sarah smiled brightly and reached over to scoop up Ripley, ignoring the twinge in the knee she had slammed on her unintended trip down the stairs. "But maybe you can show me the way out of this room? Can't make a decision if I'm too busy trying to figure a way out of here, you know."

The Goblin King frowned, but nodded regardless, one hand reaching out for her. Sarah hesitantly put her hand in his, closing her eyes as the world seemed to spin for a few seconds. When she reopened them, she realized they were in a large library. For a few seconds she simply gaped, then her brain stuttered back to life and she turned her gaze to Jareth.

"It's huge!" She exclaimed, causing a small smile to tug at the king's lips.

"Yes, I suppose it is."

"May I…?" she asked hesitantly, then grinned and moved over to one of the many shelves when he nodded. Her eyes landed on a book about magic and she pulled it out and started to slowly flip through its pages. She knew Jareth was watching her, but ignored it for a few minutes while reading the titles of different chapters. Of course when the Goblin King stares at you, you eventually have to look up at him, which Sarah did, blinking several times at the intensity of his gaze. Taking a chance, she cleared her throat, "Uhm… Your Majesty?"

Jareth blinked as well before snickering, head shaking a little at how strange it was to hear those words falling from her lips.

"Jareth."

"Right… okay. Jareth. I have some questions that I would love for you to answer."

The Goblin King instantly looked wary and rocked back on his heels, arms moving to cross over his chest as he opened his mouth to speak, "So ask them, dear Sarah."

Having been given permission, the questions seemed to burst out of Sarah like a flood, "Why are you being nice to me? Can I choose anyone to run the Labyrinth for me? If they fail am I going to be a servant or what? What happened to my friends, Hoggle, Ludo, Sir Didymus?"

Jareth smirked at her and shook his head, his posture relaxing some. "Hogwash is still outside the Labyrinth, spraying fairies as far as I know. Ludo is in the Goblin City, helping build things, and Sir Didymus is training my goblin army. As for your champion, they have to know you and have a connection with you, be it a family, friendly, or…intimate one."

The king paused for a moment before turning his gaze from her, landing on a bookshelf in the distance. "You would not be my servant, Sarah, but a guest. Free to roam my kingdom whenever you liked. Invited to balls with me when other kingdoms had them."

Sarah nodded and seemed to relax, then chuckled quietly as she realized he had ignored a question.

"And my first question…Jareth?"

The Goblin King muttered something before looking back at her, a strange expression swimming in his mismatched eyes. "I never wished to be cruel to you, Sarah. You expected an evil baby stealing Goblin King, so that was what I gave you. Though even if you had not wanted that, I would not have been nice to a runner of the Labyrinth who was trying to defeat me."

"And now?" she asked.

"Now… you are my guest and I don't have to play the cruel king. I am capable of being polite, you know."

Sarah smiled and nodded, one hand moving to brush hair behind her ear, "I'd like that. It's as I said before, I am grateful that you saved me when I asked, and if you aren't forced to act like you did the last time I was here…my stay might not be so bad."

"I am glad to hear it. Now, I shall leave you in here until the thirteen hours are up. Please try not to fall down stairs again," Jareth said with a smirk, then headed for the doors, only to be stopped by Sarah's voice calling out.

"I don't need the rest of my time. I've decided. I want my champion to be Robert Williams, my father."

Jareth frowned, but nodded and disappeared in his usual fashion, leaving behind a shimmering cloud of glitter and an amused Sarah who glanced at Ripley.

"I wonder if he buys all that glitter from a craft store…"

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Okay, first chapter of my first Labyrinth story! Hopefully this lives up to my friend's requests of a Jareth/Sarah romance! Of course I will be using the characters from the movie The Labyrinth but I will also be pulling people from Return To The Labyrinth which if you haven't read, that's okay. I know the characters I'm using from that and I'm actually planning on changing them a bit, keeping just their names and some of their personalities. I might pull my favorite lines of dialogue from Return To The Labyrinth as well, so if you are a fan, tell me if you catch them!


	2. Robert's Journey Through The Labyrinth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robert goes through the Labyrinth and Jareth and Sarah spend more time together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I would have had this up last night, but I had a little occurrence of domestic violence myself and couldn't make it on. Logically I assumed I gained magical powers and whatever I wrote would happened so I wished for the Goblin King to come. Still David Bowieless, I decided to post this and pack to take my kid to our family's cabin for a few days. I should hopefully post a new chapter when I get back. Unless I get taken to the Underground of course, in which case…you'll never hear from me again~!
> 
> Also, this chapter has a lot of Sarah's dad in it. Sorry.
> 
> I don't own Labyrinth or any of its characters. That honor belongs to Jim Henson.

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Robert Williams was an ordinary man. He loved his wife Irene, their son Toby, and his daughter Sarah. So when Sarah's boyfriend had come to him saying she had been kidnapped, he did what any ordinary man would. He called the police and started trying to come up with ways to gather a ransom for her return. It had been three days since Robert found out his daughter was gone, he would not be able to believe it had only been mere hours for Sarah herself, who was safely hidden away in a Goblin castle.

Irene had gone to bed hours before after sending Toby to bed, but something kept telling Robert to stay awake. So he did, sitting in a chair near the telephone in case the kidnappers called. Since he was an ordinary man, Robert was not expecting a flamboyantly dressed man to suddenly appear in his living room, glitter swirling around him. Robert jumped up and picked up the cordless phone, ready to use it as a weapon if need be. The strangely dressed man narrowed his eyes at the motion, then snapped his gloved fingers. The phone in Robert's hand suddenly turned to ash and the man snickered.

"Now that you no longer have that, how about you listen to me. For Sarah's sake," the man said.

"Sarah? What about Sar- you have her don't you? Give me back my daughter!" Robert lunged for the stranger and was highly surprised to find himself landing on the floor with the kidnapper sitting in the chair where Robert had been sitting.

"I'll give her back. If you win my little game. If not…well, I'll just have to keep her with me, forever." The flamboyant kidnapper looked entirely pleased with himself as Robert picked himself up off the floor and glared.

"What game? You trying to play at the movies? Want me to rob a bank for you or something?" Robert growled.

"Rob a…for heaven's sakes. What nonsense. No. I just want you to solve my puzzle," the man said with a roll of his eyes while gracefully getting to his feet.

"Puzzle?"

The man pointed behind Robert, who was shocked to find out that the rest of his living room was no longer behind him, but a giant maze. "Get to the castle at the center within thirteen hours and I will give Sarah back to you…fail and I will send you back home and Sarah will be mine forever."

Robert stared at the maze for a long minute before glancing back at his daughter's kidnapper, who was rolling glass ball along his hand with ease. "I make it through your maze and you'll give her back?"

"Idiot human, that's what I said, didn't I? And what's said is said. Now either start walking or forfeit. Either way makes no difference for me, I know you won't make it to the castle in time." With a smirk and a toss of his glass ball, the stranger disappeared and Robert was left on his own.

Staring down at the maze, Robert started to walk with a determined stride. "Don't worry Sarah, I'm coming for you."

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Jareth reappeared in his library to find Sarah curled up in a chair with a book in her hands, her little goblin friend asleep on her chest. The goblin puzzled Jareth, as he had not known that any of his goblins had taken enough of a liking to Sarah to follow her Aboveground and risk getting stuck there forever. Not even her little dwarf friend would have risked it, even if he did had the ability to hide from humans if he needed to. Promising to find out about the goblin and Sarah's relationship later, the Goblin King moved forward and placed himself where Sarah could see him if she looked up from her book. Jareth leaned up against one of the many bookcases in the library with his arms crossed over his chest and one booted ankle crossed over the other. He stared at the young woman intently, finally taking a good enough look at her that he could notice all the differences between the fifteen year old Sarah and the twenty-five year old Sarah. This Sarah had lost much of the innocent look she once had, and her dark hair had highlights from the sun streaking through it. It made her look more carefree and happy, in his opinion. He was beginning to wonder if she was ever going to notice him and started to shift impatiently when the corner of her mouth twitched into a half smile.

"How many times a day do you change, Jareth?" she asked without raising her eyes from the pages of the book.

"Pardon?"

"When you left, you were wearing a white shirt and grey pants. When you returned five minutes ago, you came in a blue shirt and black pants. Plus the last time I was in your kingdom you wore about five different outfits in the span of ten hours."

Jareth blinked a few times, before smirking faintly at the woman. "Why Sarah, I didn't realize you were so…attentive to how I dressed. Or when I came into the room."

"With pants that tight, any girl would notice what you were wearing, and honestly, it's not hard to catch sight of the glitter that surrounds you when you come or go."

One of Jareth's eyebrows raised up and he pushed away from the bookshelf, taking several steps towards the chair Sarah was in. "My, my. You must have been paying more attention to me than I had previously thought. I'm flattered, Sarah."

And he was. Jareth had not been aware that Sarah actually looked at him for any reason other than to glare and mock the last time she had been in the Labyrinth. Armed with this new knowledge, Jareth strutted a bit more than usual.

"Oh please," Sarah said with an eye roll, "it's not like you don't know how good you look."

"I didn't know you thought I look good. It's quite pleasing," Jareth smugly replied, moving to sit on the arm of Sarah's chair. "Tell me, which outfit of mine did you like best, my dear one?"

Sarah blushed as she glanced over at Jareth, her eyes landing on his lap which was strategically placed at just the right spot. She quickly turned her head away and mumbled a response while willing her blush to die down. Jareth was positively gleeful about her blush though, and leaned closer to her, his lips near her ear, hoping to make it deeper.

"What was that Sarah? I'm afraid I didn't quite catch that."

"I said…the blue jacket. That you wore when we danced. Though, I liked the feather cloak you wore the last time I saw you that day." Sarah's voice came out at a higher pitch than usual and Jareth had to chuckle lowly, eyebrow raising in interest when he saw a shiver go through Sarah.

"I believe I still have that jacket somewhere," Jareth mused, only to sit back when Sarah muttered an affirmative. "And just how would you know that?"

"I…" Sarah sank her teeth into her lower lip and closed the book on her index finger, holding her spot. She seemed to shrink in on herself, head ducking down a bit, "I snooped in your closet."

Jareth frowned at the overall posture Sarah was in, not really caring that she had gone in his closet. If he had wanted to hide his things from her, he wouldn't have left her alone in his bedroom. Staring at the submissive pose that looked so wrong on her, Jareth finally got it. And almost flew into a rage. But he didn't, because instinctively, he knew it would scare her worse than she already seemed to be. So instead he blew out a breath and reached out, gripping her chin between his gloved fingers and turning her face up towards his.

"Sarah, I don't mind that you looked. I'm more curious as to if you tried anything on. The image of you in some of my shirts is definitely pleasing to the mind's eye."

Sarah, realizing that most of his shirts showed his bare chest, flushed red again and she shoved him away, almost sending him to the floor. "I didn't try anything on! That's so…personal! And we aren't… I mean…" she huffed and reached out with the book, thumping the top of his head with it, not hard enough to really hurt, which just served to further amuse him.

"You can wear anything of mine you'd like Sarah, provided that I get to see you in it," Jareth smirked and stood up, hands moving to rest on his hips. Sarah spluttered for a few seconds before opening the book and staring at the pages, though it was easy to see her eyes weren't moving across the words.

"I am trying to read this book, Goblin King. If you aren't busy maybe you should get to work on putting our deal in motion."

"But dear Sarah, your father has been working at the Labyrinth for almost ten minutes now," Jareth said over his shoulder as he strode towards the library doors. "Not that he's managed to find the doors in yet. Such a pity."

Sarah could only watch the Goblin King strut out of the library with a frustrated expression on her face.

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Robert ran up and down the outside of the maze, panic setting in his head as his time ticked away and the entrance to the maze remained hidden. He was just about ready to start screaming when he heard a faint voice counting out.

"Thirty-two! Ha ha, gotcha! Thirty-three!"

Robert ran towards the voice and skidded to a stop in front of what looked like a dwarf. Said dwarf looked up at him with something akin to disgust before it went back to counting and shooting out gas at what looked like fairies.

"Thirty-four!"

"Please," Robert called out in a pleading tone, "I need to get into the maze to save my daughter!"

"Then you should get to it," the dwarf huffed out, staring at Robert with a frown.

"But there's no door!"

"Of course there's a door, dummy. How else would people get in?" The dwarf shook his head and started to turn back to his fairies.

"Where is it then?"

"Where's what?"

"The door!"

"What door?" asked the dwarf with a smirk, obviously taking pleasure in frustrating Robert and wasting his precious hours.

"The door to this stupid maze of course!" Robert was beyond frustrated and was about to start shaking the dwarf when he heard a creaking sound.

"The damn doors are over there. Now leave me alone!" the dwarf spit out and shoved Robert away from him, in the direction of the doors. Robert didn't even look back as he ran for the doors, taking a left once he was in the maze. He didn't hear the dwarf mutter as the doors creaked shut again. "I actually feel bad for his daughter. She's probably better off with Jareth…"

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Jareth had watched the whole exchange through one of his crystals and laughed loudly at Hoggle's last remark, one hand playing with a spare crystal.

"Oh Hogbrain, if only you knew whose dad that was."

Smirking a bit at the obvious frustration that Robert was already going through, Jareth spun a crystal in his hand. Winking it out of existence. At the exact same moment rain started to pour down over the labyrinth, soaking everything and everyone in it and forming large puddles.

"Let's see if this cools you down a bit, Robert."

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Robert sloshed his way through puddles, muttering about killing flamboyantly dressed kidnappers who owned crazy mazes and rude dwarfs when he tripped over what appeared to be a rock. As he went sprawling into a puddle the rock giggled and moved a bit. Robert blinked a few times before reaching out and grabbing the 'rock'. What he saw surprised him, the rock was actually a little deformed creature with sharp teeth.

"What...what are you?" he asked the creature.

"I's a goblin of course! What you be thinking I was, a unicorn? What else you's gonna find in the goblin kingdom? Silly human!"

"Goblin kingdom…" Robert shook his head and got to his feet, still clutching the goblin tightly in one hand. "You, goblin, show me the way through the labyrinth. Or I'll through you to the wolves."

"Ooooo you's a mean one, you is. But Nommy shows you way through the labyrinth. As long as meanie promises to give him a gift."

Robert looked around him, then patted his pockets until he came up with his wallet. He flipped through it and was about to give the little goblin a dollar bill when it snatched a picture of Sarah that had been inside.

"Nommy takes this and leads you through the labyrinth!"

Robert hesitated before nodding and putting the goblin on the ground, then raced after him as the goblin took off running down the pathways. An older man, Robert was hard pressed to keep up with the little creature and had to call out for it to slow down several times.

"Nommy can't slow down, Nommy has to show you the way!" the goblin yelled out as he raced around a corner. Robert ran after him and after whipping around the corner, barreled right into the man who kidnapped his daughter. The man shoved him away with a disgusted sneer, then looked down at the goblin who had been helping Robert.

"Gummy," he sighed, "What are you doing with this human?"

"Nommy gots a present from the meanie and now Nommy is helping him get through the labyrinth. It's a fair deal kingy! Tiny painting of Queenie for directions to castle!"

Robert was slowly getting to his feet and made a shushing sound at the goblin, who gave him a dirty look, then pulled down his pants and mooned Robert while making a rude noise with his tongue. The kidnapper laughed and ran a hand through his hair, which Robert noticed was not wet. Frowning, Robert really looked over the man and noticed that the rain didn't seem to touch him at all.

"What…how come the rain isn't getting on you?" he asked.

"I am the Goblin King, I rule over the Labyrinth and everything in it. I am the Master of Dreams and Wishes. Do you really think that I would let myself get wet from rain?"

"Goblin…King? That's not possible. What is this?" Robert demanded, taking a step towards the so called king.

"My, my, I thought Sarah asked pointless questions when she ran the Labyrinth, but yours are just idiotic. I already told you. This is my Labyrinth and you have to solve it to win your daughter back. Unless you are ready to give up?" The Goblin man looked very pleased at the thought of Robert giving up.

Robert had just been about to respond in a rude way when something the man said registered with him. "What do you mean, when Sarah ran the Labyrinth?"

"Oh yes, you didn't know. Precious Sarah wished away baby Toby when you left her home alone again to take care of him. I took him from her, but gave her the opportunity to run the labyrinth for him. She did and she won. I gave her back the baby and waited until I could get Sarah back." The man looked positively gleeful at Robert's darkening expression, one hand flipping a crystal back and forth.

"She wished away Toby? My son? When she was supposed to be taking care of him? How could she?"

"Wouldn't you be frustrated enough to say something you didn't mean when you were forced to yet again take care of someone who your father loved more than you and treated better than you?"

Robert pressed his lips together and shook his head, then pushed past the Goblin King, refusing to give him anymore entertainment. The goblin followed him, skipping along through the puddles.

"Oh, and Robert?" The man called after him, "You better speed your pace up. You only have five hours left. Time sure does fly when you're having fun!"

Before Robert could even respond, the man disappeared with a whoosh of glitter and Robert glared down at the goblin who had been helping him. "We need to get through this thing fast."

"Aye aye, meaniebutt!" the goblin yelled before taking off at top speed again.

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Jareth appeared in the library again, this time wearing a green outfit, with his riding crop in hand. He shook his head slightly when he found Sarah in the same spot as before, though a different book was in her hands. Glancing around, he notice the previous one sitting on a nearby table. Her little goblin friend was nowhere to be seen.

"I liked your blue shirt better, Jareth." Sarah commented as she turned a page in the book, eyes landing on the riding crop in his hand for a brief second before she determinedly looked away.

"I will make a note of that for the future then, precious. Where is your little friend?"

"I was hungry, he offered to go find food," she said and closed the book on her finger to keep her spot. "To what do I owe the pleasure of your company this time? Do you want to talk about how pretty you are again? I'm sure your ego would love the boost."

Jareth gave his patented smirk and shook his head, flicking his hand up to show her a crystal that he pulled from thin air. "I thought you might want to see your father progress through the labyrinth. He's going much faster now that he conned a goblin to show him the way."

"One of your goblins is showing him the way?" Sarah asked, sitting up to better look into the crystal.

"Yes, Bumpy or Lumpy, Something like that. Your father apparently gave him a painting of a queen and now the goblin is leading him right to the castle."

"You don't mind?" she sounded surprised as she stood up, moving in front of him to see into the crystal. An image of her father and the goblin running through hedges was visible and the light from the crystal made odd patterns on her face, making it look like her eyes were glowing. Jareth stared, entranced, until she looked up at him with a question expression.

"I have faith in the traps that surround the city and my castle, Sarah. And my goblin army. Sir Didymus has been training them quiet diligently," Jareth moved his gaze away from her and back down at the crystal, glad he had a reason to avoid looking at her for the moment. "Oh look, they are about to enter the Garden of Dreams."

"The Garden of Dreams?"

"Yes…it puts anyone who walks through it in a trance where they can see their dreams. They can even reach out and take them if they want…though to do so is to forfeit my game," Jareth gave her an apologetic look, which she ignored in favor of watching her father step onto perfectly manicured grass.

"He's my father, he wouldn't choose a dream over me."

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Robert stepped into the bright, cheerful garden with a wary look upon his face, not trusting that such a beautiful place could exist within the walls of the horrid maze. When nothing happened to him in the first few steps, he continued onward with a sigh a relief. He never noticed swirls of magical energy releasing from the blades of grass with each step he took, nor how they spun around him in an ever growing cloud. He was perhaps thirty feet into the garden when he first saw someone else, walking down a flower lined path to him. With a startled noise he realized it was Jessica, a girl he had been engaged to in college, before he had met Sarah's mother Linda. As he ran over to Jessica, he ignored the nagging in the back of his mind that said this situation wasn't at all possible.

"Jessica?"

"Bobby!" Jessica exclaimed and threw her arms around his neck, pressing herself close to his body. "I can't seem to find my way out of this maze."

"I'm lost too. I was searching for… for…" Robert trailed off for a few seconds before shaking his head and bringing the image of his daughter to mind. "Sarah! I have to find her!"

Jessica smiled sweetly at him while lacing her fingers together with his, her head leaning down on his shoulder. "You're so helpful Bobby. Please won't you help me, too? We could leave here… go home and be together again. We could be happy."

Jessica's eyes had a pleading look in them as she pulled her body back enough for Robert to see that she hadn't seemed to age a day since they split up. The non-aging didn't seem off to him at all and he nodded at her before glancing at a nervous looking goblin who was standing near them with a small photograph in his hands. Gathering up Jessica in his arms and pulling her close, unable to resist touching her as much as possible, Robert called out to the little goblin, "I think I found what I was searching for. We'd like to go home now."

All at once Jessica smiled and rubbed her cheek against his shoulder, and the Goblin King appeared a few feet from them, an almost reluctant expression on his face.

"Normally in the Labyrinth, what's said is said, but I will give you once more chance, Robert. Do you want to continue on to the castle or give up on your quest and go home to be with…this woman?"

Robert blinked a few times before looking down at the woman in his arms with a dreamy smile, "I think I found what I was searching for. I'd like to leave now."

"Dad, no!" a voice called out and he turned to see Sarah standing next to the Goblin King, a look of horrified surprise on her face. The king gave her what looked like an apologetic glance before lifting one hand up and waving at Robert.

"You surprised Robert. Who would have guessed that the father of such a wonderful young woman would give up after just one chance at his dreams? Most resist several dreams before giving in. What a pity…"

And then Robert was back in his living room, in his house, with a now much older Jessica in his arms. Blinking several times as a wave of confusion came over him, he glanced down at the woman in his arms. As he leaned down to kiss her, the lights in the room flickered on and a shriek rang out. Looking up, he saw his wife Irene staring at him in shocked hurt.

"I… I can explain… This wasn't supposed to happen…"

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"Sarah…" Jareth turned to face the young woman after he sent her father back Aboveground, one hand reaching out for her. He expected her to yell at him, blame him for her father leaving, or even run away, but instead she quickly moved forward and threw her arms around him, burying his face against his chest. Surprised, he stood completely still. Until he heard the sob escape her mouth. Instantly he wrapped his arms around the woman, one gloved hand lightly running through her hair. "I am sorry, Sarah."

"H-he left me. Gave up, for a dream," Sarah cried quietly, her shoulders shaking as she clung to Jareth. "How could he have done that? He's my dad."

"The hearts of men are weak, Sarah. Even parents can be entranced away from their children if they feel as though they have put aside too many dreams." Jareth said quietly as he slowly brought them both down to the ground, where he sat, pulling Sarah onto his lap where she quietly cried. It took a very long forty-five minutes for her to stop crying and look up at Jareth, who was looking uncomfortable, though he tried to hide it from her.

"Thank you," she said quietly. Jareth blinked several times in surprise before smiling faintly and nodding, his hand still gently playing with strands of her hair. They sat in the quiet of the garden with Jareth protecting her from the magic dreams it wanted to send out and Sarah leaning against his chest, fingers playing with the edge of the feathered cloak he was wearing. It took a while to realize it was the one from their final standoff where she declared he had no power over her, but when she did, she glanced up at him with a small smile. "Do you wear this in all your final standoffs, Goblin King?"

Jareth smirked and shook his head, an amused look in his eyes. "Only the ones in which you are involved."

Sarah opened her mouth to respond but was stopped when a goblin ran into the garden, his arms flailing around.

"Your Majesty! There is a goblin tearing through the castle! Destroying things in his wake!"

Jareth's eyes narrowed and he quickly shifted Sarah off of his lap, then got to his feet. He spared a moment to help Sarah to hers before transporting them both into the castle. A large crashing sound and screaming greeted them, followed by a crowd of goblins running down the hallway Jareth had transported them to. Not four seconds later Ripley came chasing after them, a kitchen knife held in his grasp, screaming after them, "You be telling me right now where Sarah is or I'll chop your noses off!"

"Ripley," Sarah called out as the goblin ran past, causing him to skid to a stop, and run over to hug Sarah's ankle.

"Sarah! I thought they kidnapped you!"

"The king took me to the gardens for a bit, I'm sorry," she said and bent down to scoop up the goblin.

"Sarah, you haven't been here thirteen hours and you already have your pet terrorizing my goblins. I shudder to think of that will happen after a week of you staying here," Jareth drawled in an amused tone as he leaned against a wall, watching Sarah and Ripley.

"By the week's end? Why I'll probably be in charge of the goblins and forcing them to do my bidding," Sarah snickered.

"Normally I don't feel bad for the goblins, but at this instance, I am absolutely terrified about what you will force them to do."

Sarah only laughed, much to the pleasure of the Goblin King and to the terror of the goblins who had been listening in.

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**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So who thought Sarah's father was going to beat the Labyrinth? Or at least get to the end and give her the chance to go back Aboveground for visits? I made him a jerk on purpose, obviously, because it will later suit my purposes. Don't hate me for making Sarah's dad a douche.
> 
> Also: Still in need of a beta.


	3. Chapter 3

Okay, I'm heading out for a few days, I'll post again when I get back! This was supposed to be beta'd but after not getting it back for a few days I went ahead and decided to post it anyhow. I wanted it up before I left so I could come back to lovely comments and reviews!

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True to his word, within the thirteen hours of Sarah's arrival in the Goblin Kingdom, Jareth had a suite of rooms cleaned and set up for her. When he had shown her, Sarah declared her love for the nature themed bedroom and bedroom, though deemed an extra room to serve as a closet and a sitting room to be too much. Jareth had shaken his head and told her she could do whatever she wished with the sitting room, even turn it into something Ripley would enjoy, which quieted her refusal of the rooms. Jareth left soon after to give Sarah time to settle in and rest a bit on the bed she was sure would fit at least five people if it had to. She was highly surprised to discover a small bed in the corner of the room that Ripley curled up in, and made a mental note to later tease the Goblin King about going soft.

She couldn't tell how many hours had passed when a knock at the bedroom door roused her from the nap she had taken and did her best to smooth out her hair while crossing the room to open the door. Almost the instant she had the door halfway open, a dwarf woman pushed her way into the room, followed by three goblins and several fairies. Sarah just blinked at the entourage for a few seconds before cautiously asking what they needed.

"We be needin' your measurements, obviously," the dwarf woman said with an eye roll as she grabbed Sarah's wrist and pulled the woman into the middle of the room. She pulled out what looked like a tape measurer with runes instead of numbers and began to hold it up and wrapped it around different parts of Sarah's body. She called out the numbers to the goblins, who were scribbling on little boards, then let the fairies swoop close to Sarah, where they gently started to tug at her hair so it was temporarily piled on top of her head. After a few seconds of staring at her, the fairies nodded and flew out of the room, leaving behind a trail of glittering dust that looked strangely similar to the stuff that flew around when Jareth appeared or disappeared from a room.

"Excuse me, why is it exactly that you need my measurements?" Sarah asked as the dwarf knelt in front of her and started to try and measure her feet. The dwarf woman looked up and raised an eyebrow at her.

"Well, the king said you had naught but the clothes on your back, so you'll be needin' some new ones, ain't you? To make you new ones, we need to know what size to make them. We have orders to get your measurements then start immediately on dresses."

Sarah was surprised at the level of cooperation she got from the dwarf, having expected to get the usual gruff remarks and half answers she normally got from citizens of the goblin kingdom. Appeased for the moment, Sarah fell silent and waited until the dwarf was finished and herded the goblins out of the room, then went off in search of Jareth. With Ripley helpfully giving directions to places, after searching the library, dining room, and knocking at what Ripley said was the King's study, she found Jareth lounging on his throne, surrounded by goblins in his throne room. The Goblin King was pinching the bridge of his nose while a fight broke out between several goblins and gloved fingers gripped his riding crop tightly, as if he was holding himself back from smacking the squabbling goblins with it.

Seeing the dark riding crop in that gloved hand brought images to Sarah's mind of a dark bedroom and a body above hers, of Jareth's quiet laughter and of mind blowing sex. A small squeak slipped from her lips as she tried to banish the thoughts from her head, and caught the attention of a few goblins. As they slowly started to quiet down and the room went silent but for the sounds of a chicken pecking at the ground, Jareth raised the hand from his face and looked up. Upon seeing her standing there, he smirked.

"Well now, Sarah. You seem to have the ability to shut my goblins up, a magical gift if I do say so myself. I suppose I will have to keep you near me constantly."

Sarah had already been blushing from the images in her head, and his words only made her cheeks deepen in color, much to the king's amusement. Rising from his throne, the Goblin King made his way over to Sarah and leaned in, so his face was close to hers.

"What do I owe the pleasure of your company, Sarah?" he asked, the smirk still playing across his lips.

"I wanted to tell you, that while I appreciate the thought, I don't need new clothes. I have clothes in my apartment…if you could just get them for me…" Sarah trailed off and looked at the ground, her mouth turned down in a frown.

"Your human clothes are not suitable for the time you will spend down here if a visitor comes to the castle or we go to another kingdom. However, you will want to dress in your clothes for your visits Above, so I suppose I will have to summon them," Jareth said, his smirk turning into a smile as Sarah's head lifted and her eyes widened.

"Visits Above? But my father gave up… our deal. I can't ask you not to honor it," she said quietly.

Jareth shrugged and back away a step, one hand tapping the riding crop against his leg. "I choose to view this in a fae way. Our deal was if he got to the castle and time ran out, as long as he tried, I would give you visits. He got to the castle gardens, which are part of the castle, if you look at it right, and I'll give a time penalty for getting caught in his dreams and trespassing in my private gardens. So factor in the time penalty… you could view it as he got to the castle… just not in time. Then took his dreams home with him. Which might be why they didn't turn out how he wanted them. Seems he did not think about what your stepmother would think of his new girlfriend…"

A heartbeat later Jareth had his arms filled with Sarah, who had launched herself into them so she could hug him tightly. Raising his eyebrows in surprise, Jareth hugged her back until she realized what she had done and pulled away quickly. A new blush colored her cheeks and she twisted her fingers together in front of her stomach in an embarrassed way.

"I'm sorry, I keep doing that to you," she mumbled.

"I assure you, I don't mind it, Sarah," Jareth replied with a smirk, reaching out to tousle her hair. She batted his hands away and sent him a glare.

"Yes well, don't get used to it."

He laughed quietly and shook his head, conjuring a crystal in one hand, the other outstretched towards her. "Oh no, of course not. Now, shall we go retrieve your belongings?"

Sarah stared at his offered hand as though it was a trap before giving in and placing hers in it. Less than a second later they landed in her living room, back in the Aboveground. Releasing her hand, Jareth started to prowl through her apartment, glaring at a few photos of her and Mark that had been placed around the room. At her amused look, he scoffed and sent out a wave of magic that caused all the pictures to either all on the surface they were placed upon, or turn around to face the wall. While Jareth displayed his power magical ability to move picture frames around, Sarah headed into the bedroom and started to pull her clothes from the closet, tossing them on the bed. After a minute the Goblin King strode into the room and with a wave of his hand, vanished the clothing back to her room in his castle.

Sarah moved to a chest of drawers after seeing him wave away her clothes and gripped one of the handles before pausing and looking over at him. "Uhm… can you do the same with the clothes in here? Without…looking at the clothes inside?"

Jareth raised an eyebrow, but moved over and placed one hand on top of the dresser, sending the clothes inside it with the ones from her closet. Sarah sighed in relief that she hadn't had to open up her underwear drawer in front of Jareth, who surely who have looked at what she had with interest. The Goblin King gave her an amused smile and went to lay across the end of her bed, setting off a whole wave of images Sarah couldn't deal with at the moment, and she grabbed a duffle bag from the closet and started to go through the apartment, picking up and packing knickknacks she wanted to take with her. It didn't take long for her to come back to the bedroom and kneel down next to the bed, pulling a plastic tub out from under it. Jareth peered over the edge of the bed, one eyebrow raising at the many sketch pads and the art supplies stored in the tub.

"An artist Sarah?" he asked, not bothering to hide the impressed undertones in his voice.

"No… I mean, I like drawing and painting, but I'm not an artist. I was a teacher," she said, fingers curling around the edges of the tub. In the blink of an eye, Jareth reached out and snagged one of the sketch pads and flipped through it, an extraordinarily smug smirk twisting at his mouth at how often his image appeared in pencil on the pages.

"Why Sarah-"

"Don't even," Sarah cut him off and stole back the pad of papers, dropping it back into the box, "Don't even let this go to your head. I drew everyone I met back in the Labyrinth. Not just you, okay?"

Jareth laughed quietly and waved a hand in a flippant fashion, sending the art supplies and sketch pads back to the castle. "If you insist, dear. But did you draw them so much, I have to ask."

Sarah pressed her lips together before standing up and holding out her hand to the Goblin King, who raised his eyebrow and took it.

"I'm ready to go home now," Sarah replied to his unasked question.

To her surprise, Jareth's eyes widened and his mouth dropped open slightly before he seemed to pull himself together to take them back to the castle. He brought them into a hallway, right outside to the door of her rooms, then pulled his hand out of hers.

"This is where I must take my leave for the rest of the day, Sarah. I have letters to answer and right, as well as a kingdom to run. I trust you'll find a way to entertain yourself for a while?"

"Yeah, I guess I could do that," Sarah mumbled and made to open her bedroom door, only to be stopped by Jareth's hand on her arm. She glanced at his confused face and sighed quietly. "Sorry, I'm just not sure what I supposed to do here. You said I could go up for visits but what am I going to do when I'm here?"

"Draw? Torture the goblins? Figure out the Labyrinth? You have access to almost every room in the castle Sarah. Including a library which you seemed to enjoy earlier," Jareth told her, a small frown tugging at his lips.

Sarah smiled and nodded, looking happy once more. "You're right. I've never seen a library like yours and the idea of running the Labyrinth without a time limit or you trying to trap me sounds like fun."

"Just be careful about where you go, Sarah. I'll be busy and won't be able to watch you go through the Labyrinth or steer you away from the many tricks it has," Jareth warned before pulling away and heading down the hallway, turning around a corner and disappearing from sight.

Sarah went into the room she was given and headed for the "closet", intent on putting her clothes away, but noticed that it had already been done. Even the clothes Jareth had moved from the drawers had been neatly tucked into new ones, much to Sarah's embarrassment. As she stood there, red faced, Ripley scuttled into the room and latched himself onto her leg, sitting on her shoe.

"Hey, Rip," she said as she carefully made her way over to her clothes, making sure not to knock the little goblin from his perch. She was reaching for a new shirt and a pair of leggings on a shelf when she suddenly stopped and frowned, then looked down at Ripley. "How long have I been here Ripley?"

"You just got here with Kingy, Sarah," the goblin looked confused at her question and hopped to the ground.

"No, I mean… how long since I wished myself here? I know I was making dinner when I made the wish… but it's barely midday now," Sarah's frowned deepened as she thought about it, until Ripley laughed.

"Kingy is good at changing time! He can make a day Above seem like an hour here!"

As Sarah contemplated that, she remembered something Jareth had once said to her.

"I have reordered time. I have turned the world upside down, and I have done it all for you!"

"I guess I'll never know what time it is now, will I Ripley?" she mused before shooing the little goblin out of the closet. She quickly changed out of her jeans and long sleeve shirt into the leggings and tank top, then slipped her feet into boots that went almost up to her knees. Remembering there was a vanity table in the bedroom, she exited the closet and used a brush to tame her hair and place it into a high ponytail. Set for her adventure, she scooped up Ripley and placed him on her shoulder, then left them room in search of the doors that led out of the castle. It took a while, even with Ripley's help, to find them and she blinked against the bright sunlight that hit her when she slipped out the doors and into the goblin city. Several goblins that were walking about stopped in the tracks and stared at her as she walked past them, heading for an entrance that Ripley told her about, which led straight to the Labyrinth. She was almost there when a large group of guards, headed by a mean looking goblin called out for her to stop. Before she could even ask what they wanted, the little goblin who looked to be in charge stepped forward.

"Stop human! You are under arrest for trespassing in the goblin city!" Sarah tried to explain, but the goblin sneered and pointed at her while yelling, "Get her!"

As the group of weapon wielding goblins started to run at her, Sarah did the first thing that came to mind; run into the Labyrinth as fast as she could. She darted around corners and turns as fast as she could, listening to Ripley when he yelled when out to go a certain place. Sarah ran for ten minutes before stopping and bending over with her hands on her knees, panting hard. After listening carefully to make sure she could no longer hear the goblins that had been chasing her, Sarah looked around and noticed several statues next to a fountain. Curious, she moved over and smiled when she realized one of them was Jareth. Next to him was a woman who had the same upturned eyebrows and a mischievous smile and it appeared that Jareth's arm was slung over her shoulders. Behind them was a beautiful man and woman, both smiling softly. The woman had upturned eyebrows as well, though the man's seemed quite normal. Upon looking closer though, Sarah could see that his ears were elongated and ended in a point that had several hoop earrings along the rim. Looking between the man and Jareth, she could see very similar facial features and concluded that the people behind Jareth and the girl were his parents.

"Well I guess that answers the question on whether or not he had a family," she said to herself, then took a seat at the feet of the statues, leaning back against Jareth's leg. Ripley slipped down from her shoulder and sat on her knee, a curious expression on his face.

"I thought we was gonna explore the Labyrinth, Sarah?"

"We were, but after being chased by those goblins, I just want to rest a bit," she explained and leaned her head back against the statue. One hand reached out and ran through the water in the fountain, which glowed softly as it touched her fingers. Too late she realized that it was infused with magic and darkness over took her vision as she slipped into an unconscious state.

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Jareth had just finished answering another letter to his mother, this one explaining about Sarah coming to live in the Underground, and stood up to stretch out his muscles. Making a low groaning sound as his back made several popping sounds, Jareth glanced at a clock that hung on a nearby wall. Noticing it was almost dinnertime, Jareth headed for the doors, intending on finding Sarah to let her know. Just as he reached the door, someone knocked on it. Opening it quickly, he was disappointed to see it was not Sarah, but the goblin city's mayor.

"What do you want, Scuttlebum?" Jareth sighed, one hand running through his wild hair.

"Spittledrum, Sire. And I have come to inform you that there is a trespasser in the Labyrinth! She was in the city and when we moved to arrest her, she ran into the Labyrinth! Kidnapped a small goblin as well," the goblin informed his king, then gulped at the furious glare he was given.

"Tell me, did the girl have brown hair? And look exactly like my honored guest who is going to be living here from now?" Jareth asked in a dangerous tone, causing the mayor to take a step back.

"I… I couldn't say, your majesty. I don't know what your guest looks like…"

"She looks like the last runner to beat my Labyrinth. There hasn't been that many of them, so surely you would know if it was Sarah, wouldn't you?"

The mayor squeaked and started to shake. "It...Might have been her, sire. She did resemble the girl who ran the Labyrinth for her brother…"

Jareth smiled and kicked his foot out, making contact with the mayor and sent the goblin flying across the hallway. The Goblin King then stormed down the hallway, disappearing after several steps and reappearing in the general area of where he sensed a human presence in his Labyrinth. He walked down a short path until he came to the turn that would lead to the statues of his family, took it and entered the open area. His eyes immediately landed on the slumped over form of Sarah, whose head was resting on the foot of statue-him. She was curled into a ball around Ripley, who was nervously petting Sarah's arm. When the little goblin caught sight of his king, he relaxed quite a bit.

"Majesty! Sarah fell asleep and I can'ts wake her! Couldn't gets you either cause the mean goblins in the city might come back and take her away! Hurt her even!" the little goblin looked worried, about Sarah's fate or his, Jareth didn't know, but Jareth didn't concern himself with how the goblin felt. He quickly moved over and knelt down next to the woman, one hand reaching out to touch her cheek. The Goblin King sent a small pulse of magic though his fingertips, negating the water's spell on Sarah.

As the water's effect faded, Sarah opened her eyes, and flinched when the first thing she saw was a hand near her face. But it drew back quickly and she relaxed her tense posture when she realized it was Jareth next to her with a shocked look on his face.

"Sarah?" he asked quietly, hand falling down to rest on his leg.

"I'm sorry, it was just… a forced habit, I guess. What happened to me?"

"One of the Labyrinth's traps. The water is laced with a sleeping spell, designed to keep a runner asleep for thirteen hours, or until I woke them up. A way to keep them from getting to the castle," Jareth explained as Sarah sat up. She nodded and pressed a hand against her forehead, eyes closing against the headache that was starting to form there.

"I just wanted to explore the Labyrinth, like you said I could. But then goblins chased me…and the fountain," she mumbled.

"That won't happen again," Jareth promised, then got to his feet and hesitantly held out a hand. "Let's get you back to the castle. It's about dinner time."

Sarah smiled and took his hand, using it to help pull herself to her feet. She didn't miss the relieved look that crossed Jareth's face when she placed her hand in his and made sure to keep holding onto his hand when she stood up. Jareth's fingers tightening was the only warning she got before he made them appear in front of the gates she had used to get into the Labyrinth. Luckily Ripley had climbed onto her shoe the instant she was standing and went along for the ride. There were guards standing not ten feet away from them and when they laid eyes on Sarah, they started forward, only to be thrown back by Jareth's magic.

"You will not touch her, understand?" Jareth hissed out, then looked at the goblins that had stopped to stare. "Sarah Williams now lives in the castle and is to be treated with the utmost respect. If I hear anyone has done differently or tried to arrest her…the consequences will be a thousand times worse than an extended trip to the Bog of Eternal Stench."

Still holding tightly to Sarah's hand, Jareth gave the goblins one last warning look, then transported them to the castle. They landed in a dining room that had a small table that was being set by a few goblins, who Jareth ignored in favor of looking at Sarah, making sure she was alright. By the way she was pressing her hand to her forehead and making a pained expression, she wasn't.

"Sarah, what's wrong?" he asked urgently.

"Just a headache. I just need to rest a bit later, it should go away," she said with a flippant wave of her hand.

Jareth pressed his lips together in a frown while watching her intently, then cursed when he thought of something. "It's probably too much magic all at once. I've moved you several times today, and you were subjected to the Labyrinth's magic. The mortal in you is fighting with all the magic that's clinging to you."

"So don't magic me back to my room, idiot," Sarah grumbled, then smiled at his offended expression. "Walk me there after dinner like a gentleman would do."

"Well now, I do believe that is something I can do," Jareth smiled back faintly, though a touch of worry still lurked in his eyes.

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Spittledrum is a character from _Return to the Labyrinth_ and is the Mayor of the Goblin City. I put him in mostly to cause trouble and so Jareth could have another goblin whose name he could massacre.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have returned, still Goblin Kingless, but with a beta! I found her on FanFiction, where she goes by the name of DarkMoonFox. Not sure she has a Archive account.

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When Sarah woke up she was momentarily confused by the painted leaves on the ceiling above the bed she was laying on, until the previous day caught up with her and she pulled a pillow over her face. She groaned loudly into the silk covering before sitting up and running a hand through the wild tangle that was her hair, a sigh slipping from her lips.

"First I wish myself to the Goblin Kingdom, then I had to go and be completely stupid with its king. Great job, Sarah," she muttered to herself as she climbed off of the bed, glancing over at where Ripley was sleeping before heading into her closet to get dressed.

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_Sarah and Jareth were standing in front of the doors to the former's new bedroom, having taken a walk through the castle after finishing dinner. To Sarah's surprise the Goblin King had been nothing but respectful as he pointed out different rooms, not once making a smug comment or shooting her one of those smirks that just screamed "I'm amazing in bed!"_

_Their easy conversation had suddenly taken on an awkward air as they paused outside Sarah's doors, Jareth's determination to act the gentleman warring with his urge to push Sarah against the doors and kiss her. Especially since she kept biting down on her lower lip while staring at his mouth. Just as the king was getting ready to bow and excuse himself for the night, Sarah reached out quickly and grabbed the front of his shirt in a tight grip. Eyes wide, Jareth found himself being yanked down into a rough kiss. Being male, Jareth wasted no time in reciprocating and tangling his hands in Sarah's hair, his body moving forward to press hers against the wooden doors. The second he had her pinned though, Sarah's body tensed up and her lips froze for a second, giving the Goblin King time to gather up his wits and step back from the mortal girl. A quiet groan escaped him as he saw her run the tip of her tongue over her kiss swollen lips and he ran a hand through his hair. Sarah started to take another step towards him, hands lifting to reach for him again, but he quickly took several steps back and held out a hand to halt her movements._

_"I cannot, Sarah. Please, no more right now," he pled before turning and striding (fleeing) down the hallway towards his own bedroom. He did not see the hurt and confused expression on Sarah's face as she turned to go into the room where she curled up on her bed._

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Sarah came out of her closet ready for an awkward day in the Goblin King's castle, wearing a long sleeve navy blue shirt and dark jeans. Paired with no nonsense sneakers and her hair swept up in a ponytail, she set off for the doors to her room, only to stop at the sight of a white card on the floor just inside the door. Picking it up, her mouth twisted into a frown at the sight of elegant script.

_Sarah,_

_I am headed for the Kingdom of Seers today and will not be available to you. I have ordered you a guide who will meet you in the throne room. Do try not to get hurt again._

_-Jareth, King of the Goblins_

Sarah could hear the smirk in his last line and scoffed to herself while storming from the bedroom, heading towards the kitchen. As she walked, she attempted to imitate Jareth and managed very poorly, "Do try not to hurt yourself again, Sarah. It would be suuuuuch a pity. Hmpt, it's a pity you aren't here so I could shove my boot up your ass. Despite how nice it looks…"

Sarah wrenched the door open to the kitchen and sent the goblins working inside screaming and running for cover behind various sacks of flour and vegetables. Sarah blinked at the white cloud that puffed up when one goblin jumped into a sack in an attempt to hide. As she noticed the goblins all shaking or staring at her with wide fearful eyes, her anger melted away and she sighed while moving to kneel on the ground.

"Hey, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to frighten you. I was just looking for something to eat," she said with an apologetic smile. The goblins continued to stare for another long minute before a few inched out of their hiding places and scurried over to Sarah.

"The lady be wanting toad cakes?" one asked, causing Sarah to grimace and shake her head.

"How about toast? Is there bread?" Several goblins smiled at her request before tossing rolls of bread at her while laughing loudly. After a particularly hard roll smacked into her nose, Sarah stood up and gave her best teacher "You are in trouble" glare. "You stop that right now or you'll be put in time out!"

"Time out? What's time out?" a goblin called out, a piece of bread still clutched in one hand.

"Time out is where you sit in a corner and stare at the wall until I say you can get out again. And you aren't allowed to get up, because if you do, you have to start the whole punishment over again!" Sarah explained while placing her hands on her hips. Several pieces of bread fell to the ground as the goblins stared at her in shock.

"Just sitting?" one asked.

Sarah nodded.

"No gameses?"

Sarah shook her head. The goblins looked horrified and a few came to clutch at her legs and shoes.

"Please don't time out us, Lady! We be good, promise!"

Sarah smirked and raised one eyebrow, "Well then… if you want to avoid a time out I suggest you start cleaning up this mess."

The goblins quickly leapt into action and started to quickly sweep up the flour and pieces of bread that were scattered around the room. Sarah watched for a few minutes before snagging a piece of bread that hadn't been thrown and leaving the kitchen. She popped pieces of bread into her mouth as she headed for the throne room and luckily was done by the time she got there, because she was immediately swept up into a tight hug by Ludo.

"Sawah! Sawah friend!" the beast rumbled.

"Yes, Ludo. We're friends. Now please put me down," Sarah gasped out, taking a huge breath when she was set back on her feet.

"My Lady! How good it is to see thee again, and looking more beautiful than last we saw each other!" a high, familiar voice called out. Sarah smiled and knelt down to sweep the little fox creature into a hug, similar to what Ludo had done to her.

"Sir Didymus!"

"Aye, my Lady fair," the knight said at an even higher pitch.

Sarah put her friend down and smiled widely at him, squashing the urge to scoop him up for another tight hug. "Are you two my guides?"

"Aye, his Majesty gave us this task and we shall not fail, no matter how hard or if it requires my life in the end!" Sir Didymus pledged, causing Sarah to laugh quietly.

"I hope there will be no need for that noble sir," she told him, then pushed herself to her feet. Much happier now that she had her friends around her, Sarah was looking forward to the rest of the day. "Tell me though, where is Hoggle?"

"Hoggle is beyond the Labyrinth, fighting the scourge of fairies that threaten to overrun the lands, My Lady."

"Let's go see him then, shall we?" Sarah asked, then swept past them without waiting for their answers. Didymus and Ludo hurried to catch up with her, with Didymus clutching his sword with one paw.

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Several kingdoms over, in a larger castle than the one Sarah was staying at, a window opened just in time for a barn owl to fly through. The owl shifted a few feet off the floor until it became the form of Jareth, who gave the window opener an amused smile.

"Thank you mother."

The woman waved her hand flippantly and made her way back to the table she had recently stood up from, and sat down to continue to eat. "We made a place for you Jareth."

Rolling his eyes over the fact that of course his mother, Queen of the Seers, had known he was coming in time for breakfast, Jareth made his way over to the spot that had been 'his' as a child.

"I don't suppose I need to tell you why I have come," he mumbled before flashing a grin across the table at a young woman with mismatched eyes like his own. "Greetings, Amantial."

"Morning Jareth," she greeted with a grin of her own and a wiggling of her fingers.

Jareth narrowed his eyes at how she looked much too happy for how early it was in the morning for her and leaned forward slightly. "Should the kingdoms shake in terror when you leave the castle today? You look much too happy. What are you up to?"

"Up to? Me? Nothing," Amantial said with a smirk that she tried to cover by drinking from a goblet.

"Your father has gone to deny yet another marriage request from the Centaur Prince," Jareth's mother informed him while standing up, her hands brushing wrinkles from her skirts. "It seems he is quite fixated on your sister."

Jareth's eyebrow raised at the information before he shook his head, "I wasn't aware anyone in the Underground was unaware of Amantial's determination to marry a Dryad Prince."

"He is aware. He just doesn't care," his mother said before turning and leaving the room, calling over her shoulder, "Come now, and let us talk about your Sarah."

Jareth ignored his sister's yelled out question of who Sarah was in favor of hurrying after his mother, knowing the Queen didn't wait on anyone. He followed her down the hall, the only sound coming from her rustling skirts that no matter how elegantly she walked, still made noise. She led him into a room that was only lit by a few fairy lights and sat down in a throne, brushing his dark hair over one shoulder. The Queen then turned equally dark eyes, made to look cruel in the paleness of her face, upon him with a knowing glint shining in their depths.

"You want to know what I see about her," she stated, not having to ask what Jareth wanted. At his unnecessary nod, the Queen smiled, the dark red she painted her lips with making it look like a parody of a deep wound. Jareth always hated when his mother smiled like that as a child, though it was a feeling that did not go away with the passage of time. "I see her death."

Gloved hands clenched at his mother's words, delivered in an amused tone, and he took several steps forward, forgetting his usual uneasiness that came with one of his mother's predictions. Catching himself in time, Jareth stood in front of her with his lips pressed together, knowing if he let a single word slip out, the Queen would quit talking. She seemed amused by his hostile stance and shook her head with a condescending air before continuing. "I suppose you'd like to hear more? Hmm… Her death will come in an agonizing blow, delivered to her by the one who loves her the most."

The Queen smiled once more and snapped her finger, conjuring a cup of tea which she sipped at while Jareth continued to stare at her. "Oh, dear, I'm finished now. That's all you'll be learning at this time."

"You have to tell me more. When, why, how...why," Jareth said while sitting down on a chair across from his mother, who shook her head at him.

"I don't have to tell you anything, Jareth."

The Goblin King's eyes narrowed before he nodded and stood up. Giving the Queen a small bow, he turned and left the room, ignoring her called out warning.

"Watch out for the vase!"

Jareth made his way back to the dining room where Amantial was still sitting at the table, reading a letter. Still angry about the lack of information he had gotten, he did not see the vase next to the door until it was too late and his elbow bumped into it, causing it to crash to the floor.

"Son of a-"

"Crude words will not fix the vase," his sister cut in before he could finish the curse, then smiled as he shot a glare in her direction. "Oh my, someone is in a bad mood. Didn't get any good news about this Sarah person?"

Jareth was about to make a snippy comment when he paused and gave his sister a smile, "No, but would you like to meet her? I'll extend an invitation to my castle if you'd like."

Amantial blinked before giving her brother a wary glance, "And what do you want in return, dear Jareth?"

"That when you are in my castle, you keep an eye on her. She's mortal and has a tendency to fall into dangerous situations."

"Deal," Amantial replied, her curiosity to find out who Sarah was overriding her natural wariness when it came to her brother's deals.

"Please come at your convenience," Jareth told her before shifting into an owl and soaring out the window. He still had one more place to go before talking to Sarah about the night before.

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Sarah, Sir Didymus, and Ludo were wandering through the Labyrinth, with the two creatures letting Sarah lead the way. Every time they came to a trap or decision that had to be made, they made Sarah be the one who took it on. So far she had gotten them chased by a giant boulder that Ludo eventually howled away, released a hoard of Gnomes that stabbed at them with sharp rocks that ripped through Sarah's jeans and into her skin, and almost gotten them trapped in an oubliette. Luckily Ludo had been far enough back to not be in danger of falling in the dark hole and had reached out to grab Sarah around the waist. Sir Didymus clung to her leg as the Rock Caller pulled them to safety and let go once the hole closed up to look like sturdy stones again.

"Well now, My Lady, that was an adventure," the little fox creature said.

"I can't do it, I just can't! This place makes no sense at all!" Sarah shouted and sat on the ground, arms crossed like a pouting child.

Sir Didymus frowned at the words before he gently laid a hand on her arm. "My Lady, thou art making mistakes because you aren't looking at the Labyrinth as what it is. It's a puzzle that one solves, not a corridor to be ran through blindly. Take a look at those opening there, try to figure out which is the best way to go."

Sarah looked at the two openings he was pointing at and frowned. They both looked exactly the same to Sarah's eyes. She was about to say so when her stubborn side kicked in and she stared all the more harder at the passages, trying to figure out the trick. It took well over five minutes for her to realize the stones in one passage were bigger than the others, despite both passages being the same height. After that it took only a minute to figure out one passage was thirteen large stones high while the only was made of nineteen smaller stones. Remembering Jareth's continued use of the number thirteen, Sarah grinned and hopped to her feet, heading for the opening made of larger stones. Sir Didymus smiled to himself and followed after her silently, letting her bask in her small victory. Sarah was quite pleased with herself and used the same technique for other passages as they traveled the Labyrinth, until they came to a large door that blocked their path. She turned around to choose another way, but was dismayed to find out that the path had shut behind them.

"Well… I guess through that door is the only way forward," she said and walked up to the imposing block. Seeing no handle, she reached up to knock, then squeaked when a small opening appeared in the door and two beady eyes stared out at her.

"What do you want?" a cranky voice called out to her.

"I want to go through, of course!" Sarah replied.

"Of course, of course," the voice mocked before sighing. "Well you have to answer the riddle to get the door to open."

"So say the riddle."

"There are four brothers in this world that were all born together. The first runs and never wearies. The second eats and is never full. The third drinks and is always thirsty. The fourth sings a song that is never good," the doorkeeper recited, his eyes narrowing through the small opening in the door. "So what are they, huh?"

Sarah frowned and started to think about the answer that seemed to stump even Sir Didymus. Ludo never had a chance and started to swing his arms around, watching as Sarah knelt down to whisper with Sir Didymus.

This riddle was going to take them awhile…

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The barn owl landed in front of a dingy castle with a look of distaste in its mismatched eyes, and shook its feathers out before shifting into the well-known form of the Goblin King. The king strode to the double doors and lifted one hand to knock on the wood, eyebrow raising when the door swung open before he could touch it. Fixing his expression into one of polite indifference, Jareth made his way into the castle and up to the woman on the large throne across the room. He gave a tight bow in her direction, grimacing when she smiled widely at him.

"Why Jareth, such a look upon your face. Who comes to visit their fiancé with such an expression?" the beautiful blonde woman asked him, her fingers curling around the arms of her throne. Jareth winced at the word that bound them together before giving her an apologetic look.

"I have come to end our betrothal, Mizumi, as is my right as a King. We are no longer children whose parents dictate who we will socialize with and I do not wish to be bonded with you," Jareth used his best 'king' tone while still trying to sound kind, not that it seemed to matter to the instantly enraged Queen who sprang from her throne.

"How dare you! This arrangement was decided upon over one thousand years ago! You will not dishonor me by breaking it now!" Mizumi raged while walking towards the Goblin King, several cups and goblets flying through the air around the room. Jareth allowed her to storm up to him and rolled back slightly when her hand came up to strike him across the face. "This better not be because of that mortal girl Aboveground. Do not think I did not hear about your love for her."

Jareth smirked at Mizumi, shaking his head slightly. "I can honestly say that I am not in love with any mortal girls who live Aboveground. And you know that I never lie, Mizumi."

The blonde queen narrowed her eyes and stepped back, her hands clenching into fists at her sides. "I do not accept this. You will see that you are making a huge mistake in this, Goblin King. You will come crawling back to me, begging for my hand one day."

"That will never happen," Jareth murmured before turning on his heel and leaving the room, shifting into his owl form as soon as he reached the doors. Now it was just the flight back to his kingdom that separated Sarah and him.

The flight was long and it was near nightfall when he landed in front of his castle, one hand waving away a crowd of goblins that immediately surrounded him. Once they dispersed enough, Jareth summoned a crystal and spun it a few times before looking into it, gaze falling on Sarah who appeared to still be in the Labyrinth. Chuckling quietly to himself, Jareth pulled enough magic to him to move him from the castle to standing behind Sarah in a cloud of glitter.

"So tell me Sarah, how are you enjoying my Labyrinth?" he whispered quietly into her ear as he leaned closer to her. She jumped and whirled around, hands reaching out to start slapping at him wildly. Eyes wide in surprise, Jareth caught her wrists and held them tightly. It was only then that she really looked at him and an expression that was a mixture of shock, anger, and embarrassment came over her face.

"Oh. My. God. Never do that again! I thought you were a serial killer or something! I almost had a heart attack, you jerk!"

Jareth grinned at the realization that he had startled her enough to cause such a reaction and shook his head. "Oh my, I can't have that happening, can I?"

"Oh, shove it with that amused, I'm better than you because I'm the Goblin King Tone, you smarmy ass," Sarah hissed out, yanking her wrists out of his grasp. Jareth had to laugh at her pathetic glare and shifted to lean against a nearby wall.

"Language, dear Sarah. Also, when a king asks you a question, it's polite to answer it."

"I… what quest-"Sarah broke off at the remembrance of the question that had sent her into her panicked slapping and sent him another glare. "I was doing really well at it before but now this stupid door is here and I can't figure out the damn riddle and the stupid doorkeeper won't give me a clue!"

The Goblin King looked highly amused as he looked over her shoulder at the bored looking eyes of the doorkeeper. "What is the riddle?"

"Oh, now His Majesty is gonna help you out, girly? My, my, what friends you have. Very well, listen closely. There are four brothers in this world that were all born together. The first runs and never wearies. The second eats and is never full. The third drinks and is always thirsty. The fourth sings a song that is never good."

Jareth thought about it for a few moments before smiling and looking back at Sarah. "Would you like to know the answer, my dear? Or would you like to think on it some more?"

Sarah pressed her lips together before crossing her arms. "I'll figure it out myself, thank you."

The doorkeeper broke out in laughter and called out to Jareth, "You might as well get comfortable, Sire, this one isn't the sharpest."

Jareth sent the doorkeeper a glare before moving to sit on the ground, leaning back against the wall again. Sarah sent him another glare before she sat down as well, though against the opposite wall. She started to chew on her lower lip as she went back to thinking about the riddle, giving Jareth the opportunity to glance around them. It seemed that Sir Didymus and the Rock Caller were curled up asleep near the wall that must have sprung up behind them when they came down the passageway and Sarah's little goblin friend was nowhere to been seen. Curious, Jareth cleared his throat to get her attention.

"Where is your pet goblin, Sarah?"

Sarah glanced up at him and frowned. "Ripley isn't a pet, he's a friend. And he wanted to go visit his family today while I went exploring."

Jareth made an affirmative sound and summoned a crystal, which he began to roll over his hands. After a few minutes it seemed Sarah could no longer ignore him and watched the crystal's movements.

"What's in that one?"

"Why don't you come and see?" Jareth said with a smirk that widened when Sarah glanced around them before scooting over to his side. She kept a careful distance between them, which amused Jareth as he stopped the crystal and held it out to her. She stared at it carefully before giving him a confused look.

"Is that water?"

"It is."

Sarah frowned and watched the crystal for a bit longer before she grew bored and turned her gaze to the darkening sky above. Jareth glanced at her before turning the crystal into a flame, which danced along his fingertips. It recaught her attention and the king smirked at her fascination with the magic that he easily wielded. As the Labyrinth around them started to fill with shadows, Jareth found his gaze continuously being drawn to her face, the fire sending shadows to play beautifully across it. She kept glancing at him as well, her eyes falling on his mouth often before she would shake herself out of whatever trance she fell into and firmly turn her gaze back to the fire. As her tongue moved out to wet her lower lip, Jareth groaned quietly and let the flames go out, causing her eyes to snap to his face in surprise. He answered the questioning look that started to fill them by running a cold, gloved finger across her lips before following it with his mouth. Her breath seemed to catch when his lips brushed over hers and he smiled right before she pulled back with a frown turning down the sides of her wonderful mouth.

"Last night… you didn't want to…" Sarah said quietly, her eyes dropping down to her lap. Jareth silently cursed himself before using two fingers to turn her face back towards him.

"Last night was different, I fixed what I had to today so that I could do this." Jareth quickly covered her mouth with his again, one hand moving to her neck to keep her close. He hadn't needed to fear she would pull away again as her hands made their way into his hair, gripping the wild strands gently. Her lips parted at the swipe of his tongue, allowing him to taste the uniquely Sarah taste for a few wonderfully, torturous seconds before she pulled back and stared at him with wide eyes.

"I figured it out!" She exclaimed, much to his bewilderment.

"Sarah?"

"The water in your crystal, the fire you were playing with! They were your clues!" Sarah pushed away from him and got to her feet, running over to the door. "The answer is water, fire, earth, and wind!"

"Oooh, smart one, aren't you?" The doorkeeper said sarcastically before the door swung open to reveal the rest of the passage. Sarah glanced over her shoulder proudly to see Jareth staring at her with an unbelieving, yet entirely amused expression. As she realized that she had abandoned him in the middle of probably one of the best kisses of her life for a riddle, her face flooded with color and she covered it with her hands.

"Jareth… I am so sorry. It just…came to me and I had to…" she trailed off with a muffled groan. Jareth laughed and stood up, brushing imaginary flecks of dirt from his clothes.

"Yes well, you figured out the riddle. May I bring you back to the castle now?"

"Please do. I need to go curl up in bed and die," Sarah moaned out as Jareth smirked and shook his head. After tossing a crystal at her sleeping companions that sent them back to their beds, Jareth reached out and tugged her hands away from her face. Amused at the blush that was still present, he leaned in and brushed his lips over hers. At the touch of his lips, magic swirled around the two of them and when he leaned back again, Sarah noticed she was standing in front of her bedroom doors. The Goblin King gave her a smirk and patted her cheek before disappearing in a swirl of glitter, his voice teasingly echoing through the hallway.

"Until tomorrow, Sarah."

Sarah just groaned again and slunk into her room, collapsing face first on the bed. Had anyone been listening they would have been highly amused at the muffled words that came from her.

"Stupid, stupid, lost your chance for possible sex with the Goblin King for a riddle. You're such an idiot, Sarah."

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**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That was actually one of my favorite riddles, so I had to put it in. I might put other riddles in the story later on, so if you want to send me a few, feel free! I might just add them in and give you a shoutout!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is the next chapter! Hope you enjoy.
> 
> And for those who need it, Amantial is pronounced Ah-mon-tea-all.
> 
> Edited and improved by the wonderful DarkMoonFox from FanFiction.

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Sarah walked down to breakfast with a bright smile on her face and Ripley on her shoulder, listening to the little goblin chatter on about the ruckus his brother's children had caused the day before, while she had been traveling in the Labyrinth. Apparently goblin children weren't all that much different than adult goblins, with the exception of young goblins being smaller and able to squeeze themselves into more places. After hearing how one goblin child managed to get into the pipes that provided water to the Goblin City and the castle and blocked them with who knows what for days, Sarah was thanking the stars that Ripley seemed like a much more mellow goblin. Even if he did have a tendency to find messy ways to entertain himself when he was bored, leaving messes for Sarah to clean up later on. Thankfully her arrival at the dining room doors saved her from having to hear about how dirty the water was after they managed to extract the goblin child, for even Ripley knew that such things were not spoken about when one was going to eat. Sarah had not eaten much the day before and she was starving. Horror stories about goblin children were not allowed to spoil her appetite this morning. Hearing the goblins yell at each other and make crude jokes while they were serving food was going to be bad enough.

Sarah braced herself for the squabbling of the goblins as she moved into the room, and was pleasantly surprised when it went completely silent before she had even taken two steps towards the table. Goblins who had been in mid-argument caught sight of the "Time Out Lady" and quickly fell quiet, their demeanor becoming almost polite. Smiling to herself, Sarah nodded at Jareth and a pretty young woman who was sitting at his right at the table. They both stared at her with bewildered expressions which grew into comical shock when a trio of goblins rushed over to pull Sarah's chair out for her, then pushed it in once she had sat down in it. She patted the three goblins on the heads before sending them on their way, then flashed a sweet smile at Jareth, whose expression made Sarah want to laugh. The goblins that had helped Sarah slipped from the room quickly with large grins that turned into cheering once they were out in the hallway, where they thought they couldn't be heard.

"How did you do that?" Jareth asked.

"Do what?"

"Make them behave!"

Sarah smiled again and helped Ripley down from her shoulder, to the table, where the little goblin darted forward to take a piece of cheese. "Make who behave?"

"The goblins, of course!" Jareth pointed at the doors that the goblins had left through, curiosity showing very clearly in his mismatched eyes.

Jareth's guest caught onto what Sarah was doing and started to laugh quietly into her hand when Sarah raised an eyebrow and asked, "What about the goblins?"

"Sarah, answer the question," Jareth said in his kingly 'I rule you' voice.

"Then ask the right question, Jareth," Sarah replied with a smirk that turned into a small laugh when Jareth blinked, then huffed, having realized he had his own Labyrinth rules used on him. Shaking his head with amusement at her cleverness, Jareth resigned himself to playing her game.

"Sarah," he began with a patient expression, fingers lacing together on top of the table in front of him, "How did you manage to make the goblins behave in such a polite manner?"

"I threatened them with Time Out," Sarah told him simply and carefully started to fill her plate. After glancing down the table to find no coffee whatsoever, Sarah poured a glass of juice and sipped at it with a smile at Jareth's expression. The Goblin King was staring at her like she was the smartest person in the entire world and he might lower himself to his knees to start praying to her. Before she could comment on this though, Jareth's guest cleared her throat, getting Sarah's attention.

"Normally it is considered polite for the host to introduce his guests, but since Jareth seems incapable of having such manners, I will bypass that and introduce myself. I am Amantial, Jareth's younger sister."

"You're the statue girl!" Sarah blurted out, then blushed as Amantial's eyebrows raised in question, "I mean… Jareth has statues of himself, you, and I think your parents. In the Labyrinth. I came across them. And I'm just going on and not telling you my name after you told me yours, great. I'm brilliant. And Sarah. I'm…Sarah."

A quiet snicker came from Jareth's place at the table and Sarah looked over to see the king hiding his mouth while trying to make it look like he was wiping it with a napkin. Shooting a glare at him, Sarah kicked a foot out, connecting with his shin and causing a completely shocked look to appear on Jareth's face. His sister's eyes went wide as she figured out what had happened, gaze flicking between Sarah, and her brother, who she assumed was about to smite the human girl. To her immense surprise, Jareth only laughed and smirked in Sarah's direction.

"Be nice, Sarah. There is company present," he drawled out and Sarah rolled her eyes before going back to cleaning her plate and struggling to remember all the etiquette rules her stepmother had forced on her as a teenager. She was sure she made a few errors and tried to correct herself by watching Jareth and his sister out of the corners of her eyes, though neither of them seemed to care about how she was eating.

Finally it seemed that Amantial was bored and not a fan of silence because she dropped her fork on her plate with a loud clatter and stood up. "If Sarah is quite done, I will be taking her with me. I wish to know what is so fasc…I mean get to know her."

Then without waiting to see if Sarah was indeed done, Amantial walked around the table, took Sarah by the arm, and pulled her from the room. She pulled Sarah down several hallways before stopping and looking around with an irritated expression. "How in the world do you find the library around here?"

Sarah smiled at the grumbling before pointing to a hallway that was connected to the one they were in, "Go down that one, then take the second left. It will go by the library."

Amantial gave Sarah a suspicious look before pulling her down the hallway Sarah had pointed out, following the mortal's directions. As they came to a stop outside the large double doors of the library, Jareth's sister gave Sarah a surprised smile. "Now how did you do that?"

"I'm good at remembering where I've been," Sarah said with a shrug, reaching out to push one of the doors open. Amantial seemed to accept her explanation and once the doors were open, she pulled Sarah inside, and then did some sort of magic that caused the library doors to glow a light blue.

"There, now my brother won't be able to listen in on what we say here," Amantial said with a satisfied nod before going to lounge across a couch in a fashion that was eerily similar to Jareth's. Sarah took a hesitant seat on a chair, trying not to look overwhelmed by Amantial's pulling her every which way and her casual kidnapping.

"Why would he listen in, and why should we care?"

"Because I want to hear all about your relationship with him of course!" Amantial rolled her eyes as she gave what she deemed an obvious answer.

"I don't really have," Sarah paused and shook her head. "We don't have anything like that."

"Then why are you here? Jareth never lets guests stay for an undetermined period of time the way it looks like he is doing with you, or have playful arguments like you two seem to have. Oh, and let's not forget he went to see the Queen of Seers to ask about you."

Sarah blinked several times, a curious expression flashing over her face before she shook her head again. "I think he's just being nice, and he probably went to ask the Queen how long I was going to be here or something." She refused to acknowledge the fact that it was Jareth's conditions of their deal that now landed her here indefinitely, with the exception of her Aboveground trips.

Amantial's eyes narrowed as she looked over at the mortal girl, her lips turned down in a frown as she mumbled, "Too bad, it would be nice to see Jareth with someone. He's been alone for a long time. I'd love to see him married."

Sarah blinked at the other woman before looking away, a small smile twisting her lips as an image of Jareth dancing around with children who looked like him invaded her mind. Amantial grinned at the light blush on Sarah's face and decided then and there that she would play matchmaker for her brother and this mortal girl.

"Tell you what, I'm going to throw a ball in two weeks and you and Jareth are invited, separately, but if he asks you to attend with him, you'll know he's interested. A king does not go to a ball with someone unless he is serious about them."

"That's nice, but I wouldn't know how to act at an event like that. I'm just a human girl, I never learned about high class functions," Sarah said quietly, looking down at her hands in her lap.

Amantial jumped up from the couch she had been lounging on with a grin, "Then I have two weeks to teach you everything you'll need to know, won't I?" She then darted over to the bookcases, glancing along the rows, often times muttering to herself about how Jareth had books about wars from tens of thousands of years ago that were fought because one kingdom accidentally offended another, yet had nothing on simple etiquette. Sarah watched with growing trepidation, sure she had gotten herself into something she wanted no part of.

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His sister having taken Sarah, Jareth was left to his own devices and had turned to the only other being left in the dining room. Sarah's little goblin friend. Sighing at who he was forced to converse with, Jareth beckoned the creature closer.

"What is it that Sarah called you? Tripe?"

"Ripley, Sire," the goblin squeaked out as he shifted from foot to foot near Jareth's goblet. The king smirked at the goblin's fearful look before he nodded.

"How long have you been with Sarah?" Jareth asked, then frowned. "More importantly, how did you get to Sarah? After she left, no one should have been able to come in contact with her, least of all a goblin."

"Sarah had magics mirror in her room that she called her friends through. She called one right as Ripley was running from other goblins and I jumps through! She lets me stay with her, even when she be leaving home to go to cool-age!" Ripley explained with a bright smile, momentarily forgetting his fear of the king.

"College," Jareth corrected absently as he pondered the comment about a magic mirror.

"Yeah, yeah!" the little goblin agreed before sitting down, leaning against a piece of fruit. "Sarah even be taking me with her after that. Said she liked having a friend that would always be there for her. So Ripley stayed, even though he didn't like Sarah's suitors!"

Jareth raised an eyebrow at the plural use of the word suitor and leaned closer to Ripley, one gloved hand resting on the table's edge. "And just how many suitors did she have?"

"Since her be beating the Labyrinth?" Ripley asked, then answered at Jareth's nod, "Twelve!"

"So many?" Jareth breathed out, mostly talking to himself now, though Ripley answered him anyways.

"Sarah not be liking a lot of them. Says they were too boring for her. Even the one who asked her to marrys him!"

Jareth's eyes jerked back to the goblin, who shook a little under the force of his king's glare. "Ripley, that wouldn't be the one who was hurting her, now was it?"

"No, meanie Mark was the one who be hurtin' Sarah. Joe be the one wanting to marrys her. Though… he did hurt Sarah's feelings when she told him no, said she was cold, but I been hugged by her before and she be warm!"

The Goblin King rolled his eyes at the goblin's mistake and stood up, one gloved hand reaching out to scoop up Ripley before he left the dining room, heading down the hallways until he reached his study. As he sat down at the desk in front of a window, he set the small goblin down, forgetting that he had brought him along. Jareth searched through the large stack of books on his desk making a quiet, triumphant noise when he found the book of marriage he had looked through a few nights previous in order to know the proper way to call off his engagement with Mizumi without starting a war. He started to flip through the book while one hand dug through a drawer to find silver rimmed glasses that he settled on his nose.

"Whatcha lookin for?" Ripley asked while looking interestedly through the knickknacks on Jareth's desk.

"I want to know if Sarah can marry someone in the Aboveground while on one of her visits there if she lives Underground. Usually it's against the law for someone who lives here to marry a mortal from Above," Jareth said absentmindedly.

"Does that mean Kingy can't marry Sarah?" Questioned the little goblin, showing he wasn't as dumb as most goblins were.

Jareth looked up sharply and snapped out, "What was that?"

"Kingy said no one from here can marry a mortal from up Above! Sarah being from the Aboves, Sire."

"Sarah lives here now. She'll be considered a citizen of the Goblin Kingdom," the Goblin King mumbled, mostly to himself. Ripley just shrugged and went back to examining a crystal on a clawed base that sat on Jareth's desk.

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"Why is this so difficult?" Sarah cried out as she dropped into a chair, having flubbed up yet another phrase one had to use when greeting a Queen from a different kingdom. Amantial sighed and shook her head, taking her lounging pose on the couch across from Sarah's chair. The pose once again reminded Sarah of Jareth and the longer she stared, the more similarities she could see between the siblings. Both had upturned eyebrows and wild blonde hair, though Amantial's seemed tamer than Jareth's did, and was much longer. Amantial of course, wore a beautifully embroidered dress, but when she leaned against something, or was on a couch or chair, she adopted the same posture and poses that her brother had. And of course Sarah couldn't miss the way Amantial smirked in the same fashion and just as often as Jareth did, giving Sarah the impression the siblings were almost mirror images in looks and personality, though Amantial seemed more childish at times, clapping her hands when she was happy and jumping up and down.

Noticing Sarah's staring, Amantial raised an eyebrow at Sarah, one hand self-consciously touching her hair. "What?"

"Oh, sorry. I was just noticing that your eyes are like Jareth's, just opposite," Sarah replied, shaking herself out of the daze she had fall into.

"An unfortunate side effect of what happens when a Seer Princess and an Owl Prince have children," Amantial sighed.

"I think they're lovely," Sarah smiled and sat up again, her small break giving her enough energy to try again. "Shall we continue attempting to help me learn to avoid throwing the Goblin Kingdom into war?"

Jareth's sister groaned and shook her head, one hand waving Sarah away. "No more for now. If I have to recite the lines anymore, I am likely to throw fireballs at something. Maybe Jareth will help you practice."

Sarah pressed her lips together at being shooed away like a child, but nodded and left the library, hands curled into fists. They stayed that way until she bumped into someone and headed towards the floor, a curse on her lips ready to come out when she hit the stone below. Fortunately, the landing she was expecting never came because two gloved hands shot out and grabbed her by the waist as she started to tip backwards, pulling her back to an upright position.

"You should really be more careful, Sarah," a silky voice said and Sarah looked up at the Goblin King.

"I know," she muttered, pulling away from Jareth's hold. The way she looked down at the floor with her lower lip caught between her teeth, almost as if she was expecting to be yelled at concerned the king.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

An upturned eyebrow raised up slowly and Jareth's hand reached out to rest on Sarah's shoulder. "It's obviously something, because if it was nothing you wouldn't look like someone just took away your puppy."

"I just," Sarah sighed, her head lifting enough to let her see Jareth. "Your sister invited me to a ball in a few weeks, but I can't get the stupid greetings and phrases for each different kingdom right, and even if I did, I don't know how to dance!"

"Sarah, you've been here for just a few days, no one would expect you to use all the formal greetings. Just use the generic one that applies to everyone. I usually do," Jareth said with a small smirk that hid a relieved smile at the disappearing frustration in Sarah's eyes. "Now, as for the dancing, that is something we can fix rather quickly."

"How? Are you going to magic me some dance moves like you did in the ballroom when I ate the peach?" Sarah asked, a hint of accusation in her voice.

"No," Jareth laughed, his hand moving to capture her wrist in a firm grip, which he used to pull her along as he went down the hallway at a quick pace, turning corners sharply until he reached a tall set of double doors. He pushed them open and smirked when he heard Sarah's gasp.

"This is from my dream! You brought me to the castle for a dance, then dropped me out in the trash heaps when I broke it?"

The Goblin King shrugged and pulled her inside the room. "I'm a sore loser and I didn't want an amnesiac roaming around my castle."

"So, the dangerous trash heaps?" Sarah asked in a snarky tone.

"It's not my fault you couldn't just be happy with the dreams I gave you," Jareth shot back in an equally snarky, yet somewhat pained tone. As Sarah's eyes widened, he shook his head and cleared his expression, hands reaching out for her as music started to play from seemingly nowhere. "Now come closer, Sarah."

Sarah slowly moved forward and placed a hand in his gloved one, the other resting on his arm as he pulled her closer. She avoided looking up at his face and instead focused on their feet as he started to slowly move them in a dance reminiscent to the one they had done years before. This time however, he counted quietly aloud for her, up to three each time, before starting over. Since she was steadfastly not looking at his face, she couldn't tell if he was wincing or glaring at her every time she stepped on his feet. It took well over half an hour of his patient leading and counting for her to feel comfortable enough to look up from the ground and at his face, where approval clearly showed. Sarah smiled faintly, feeling much more confident in herself now that she knew he thought she was doing well.

"Thank you," she said quietly, soft color coming to her cheeks as he smiled down at her.

"You are most welcome Sarah," he replied, his fingers tightening slightly where they rested at her waist. "If I have been invited to this ball, which I suspect I have been, perhaps you will give me a dance."

To Jareth's bewilderment, Sarah's face fell slightly before she nodded and pulled away from him. "Of course I will, but for now I think I should get ready for dinner."

As the Goblin King blinked at her sudden change in demeanor, she all but ran from the room, not even giving him time to say goodbye or inform her that dinner was hours away.

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Sarah fled back to the library where she found Amantial still lounging on the couch, but with a book in her hands this time. The princess looked up when the doors opened and she immediately sat up at the expression on Sarah's face.

"What's wrong?" she asked, placing the book on the floor next to her.

"Nothing. Well, I was with Jareth and we talked about your ball. He asked for a dance while we are there, but said nothing about going together. I guess you were wrong," Sarah shrugged in an attempt to look indifferent, though it failed miserably.

"Look, I know my brother. He's interested in you," Amantial firmly said while sitting up, eyes narrowed at Sarah. "So stop acting like a child and give him time to ask."

Sarah looked like she was about to angrily respond when she sighed and seemed to deflate right in front of Amantial's eyes. "You're right, I'm sorry. I've just never had this problem before."

"What problem would that be? Someone not asking you to a ball?"

Sarah sent a glare towards Jareth's sister and shook her head, "No, liking someone… like how I like Jareth."

"Well suck it up sweetie, you now live in a world where men can take decades to make a move, simply because we have that much time."

Sarah sighed and dropped her head to her hands, muttering too quietly for Amantial to hear.

"But I don't have that much time…"

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	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd like to thank my beta on FanFiction, DarkMoonFox

Despite Jareth's assurances that she could use generic greetings to anyone she might talk to at the ball, Sarah was determined to learn as many as she could, as well as the hand gestures that went with them. Amantial would get either bored or frustrated after just an hour or two of Sarah's practicing and would wander off to read or explore, often leaving Sarah alone in the library. It was during one of these instances that Jareth found her, trying to curtsy perfectly in one of the new dresses that had appeared in her closet the day before. The dress was a deep green with brown trimming, and sleeves that covered Sarah's hands, making practicing her hand gestures difficult. It had been one of the simpler dresses that she found hanging on one side of her closet, with laces in the front instead of behind her. The most difficult part of the dress had been the laces on the sleeves, as she had to do them one handed.

As Sarah swooped down into another curtsy, Jareth took pity on her and pushed off of the wall near the doors he had been leaning against while simultaneously summoning a crystal, which he tossed at the ground in front of her. It shattered and caused a small shriek of surprised to slip from Sarah, who jumped backwards and shot the Goblin King a glare.

"What was that for?" she huffed out, glaring even more at the amused smile on Jareth's face.

"My apologies, I should have warned you," he said with a small bow before moving to stand in front of her, gloved hands reaching out to turn her towards the mirror that the crystal shards had formed. "It would be easier for you to know what you are doing wrong, if you could see yourself. Now try again."

Sarah sighed and performed the curtsy movement again, her breath catching as Jareth's hand slid down her back, pressing against her spine. As she froze, he bent over, his lips almost brushing her ear while his hand stayed pressed against her back.

"Keep your back straight, and quit holding your breath," he murmured into her ear, a small smile playing across his lips when he noticed the way she bit into her lower lip. When she nodded, he drew back to his former position, though his hand still rested on her lower back. Her eyes flicked to his several times through the mirror as he waited patiently for her to try again and she had to really focus on not falling on her face when she dipped down again, his hand going with her.

"Good job, Sarah," he said as she came back to her feet and turned to look at him, forcing his hand to leave her back. She smiled brightly at his praise and raised a hand to brush her hair behind one ear, trying and failing to look like she wasn't a bit embarrassed.

"So this is where you've been hiding the past few days," Jareth commented as he placed his hands on his hips, a small smirk twisting his lips. "I thought you were avoiding me, not practicing your highborn bowing for the ball."

At the mention of the ball she was practicing for, Sarah seemed to straighten up and used both hands to brush invisible dirt from her skirts before looking Jareth straight in the eyes. He raised an eyebrow at the sudden change, waiting for whatever she wanted to say to come blurting out.

It didn't take long, and the Goblin King was completely stunned at the fast spoken, but clear words that spilled from Sarah's lips.

"Will you go to the ball with me?"

Jareth simply stared at Sarah for an unknown length of time, a look of surprise on his face. He was unable to get words out as Sarah started to look more and more uncertain, until she finally dropped her head with a hurt expression. Forcing himself to move, Jareth reached out and placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but is it not usually the man who asks the woman to the grand ball in a fairytale?"

Sarah's head shot up again and she gave him a weak glare, her arms coming up to cross in front of her chest. "Yes it is, but you hadn't asked and I'm not some simpering damsel in distress like in a story."

The Goblin King started to laugh and nodded, a wide grin on his face. "You are completely right, Sarah. And I would love to go with you."

"Now that we settled that, perhaps you can help me find a dress in my closet that will be acceptable?" Sarah asked, her eyes shining hopefully.

"Why not ask my sister?"

Sarah frowned and reached up to twist a piece of her hair before shrugging one shoulder. "I trust you more. I know you would never let me look like an idiot at something like this."

"Then let's go look," Jareth said and grabbed Sarah's hand, taking them to the spot outside of her doors in the hallway in the blink of an eye. He waited patiently for her to open the doors and walk in first before following, still lightly holding her hand in his. She didn't seem to care as she pulled him to the closet, gesturing with her free hands to the dresses that lined a wall.

"Oh God, there's more now than there was this morning!" She cried out and threw her hands up in the air, pulling away from Jareth in the process.

"I gave the seamstress free reign and it seems as though she took it to heart," Jareth commented as he started to pick through the dresses, discounting almost all of them immediately until he came across a pale gold, sleeveless dress. He pulled it from the hook it was hanging from and held it out to Sarah, who stepped closer and ran her fingers over the silver beading and jewels sewn into the bodice. There was more beading done on the top transparent layer of the skirt, which looked like it had glitter sewn into the fabric. A small gold flower rested at the hip and from it two wavy tendrils of tiny jeweled flowers snaked their way down the skirt, gradually getting further apart until they reached the bottom. As she turned the dress around, she wrinkled her nose at the lace up back.

"It's beautiful, but I'd need help with the back," she said, idly tugging at one of the ribbon laces.

"Sarah, you have a whole castle at your fingertips. Someone will definitely be around to help you with your dresses," Jareth told her before returning the dress to its hook, then moving over to rummage through one of the many jewelry boxes that lined a dresser nearby. He was on the third box when he plucked out a gold necklace that had what looked like mini versions of his magic crystals throughout it, and the earrings that matched. Sarah was staring at the boxes with a dismayed expression on her face, one hand pressed against her chest.

"Why are there so many jewels in there? I didn't ask for anything like that," she whispered, much to Jareth's amusement.

"The fairies enjoy making jewelry and having a woman here that can wear it seems to have sent them into overdrive. I wouldn't worry about it, they do it for fun."

Sarah nodded slightly as Jareth put the jewelry back, ignoring his amused expression as he turned back to look at her. He waited patiently until she got over the idea of so much jewelry and looked at him, then smiled. "If your dress is all picked out and you have no other need of my fashion sense, I should excuse myself from your rooms."

"Why?" Sarah asked with a confused expression, the corners of her mouth turning down in a frown. "For that matter, why do you never come into my rooms? I know I've given plenty of 'Go Ahead' signals, but you always leave me right at my door."

The Goblin King looked vaguely uncomfortable as he glanced around the room, hands tugging his gloves further up on his wrists. "It's… improper."

Sarah almost started to laugh, but stopped herself when she realized Jareth was being completely serious. It then occurred to her that if they dressed like they were from medieval times and curtsied like they were from the time period, the people of the Underground probably viewed the world around them the same. It made Sarah want to force Jareth to come with her to the Aboveground and take him to the beach, where girls wore bikinis. He'd probably have a fit. Completely amused by this idea, Sarah nodded and gestured towards the door with a sweep of her hand. "Alright, you may go act proper somewhere else then. I'm going to change so I can go run through the Labyrinth."

The Goblin King nodded and quickly left the closet, and out of her rooms altogether, leaving Sarah to change into leggings, her trusty boots, and a plaid shirt that one of her ex-boyfriends had left when she broke up with him. As she started to pull her hair up, she caught sight of herself in a mirror, then smirked when an idea came to her. Quickly securing her hair in an elastic band, Sarah left her rooms and went down the hallway a bit until she came to Jareth's. She knocked at the doors, but when there was no answer, she opened one and peeked inside. No Goblin King. Humming happily, she darted to his closet and hunted down a poet's shirt that had laces in the front that would keep her chest covered, then changed into it.

"He did say I could borrow something of his," she murmured to herself as she left his closet and went to his desk, looking for paper and a pen. Finding some, she quickly scrawled a message on the small piece of parchment she located and left it and the plaid shirt on his desk before leaving the room and heading for the entrance to the castle. She was disappointed when she didn't run into the Goblin King on the way down, but shrugged it off and headed to the closest entrance to the Labyrinth. She started through the maze at a jog, taking turns whenever she felt like it, and overall not really paying attention to where she was going. She came to a fork in the road that was exactly the same, with absolutely no differences that she could see, though she tried to find one for over ten minutes. Shrugging to herself, she decided to take the right passageway and walked for a while, until she reached a garden. Pretty flowers were everywhere and she knelt down to smell a bright purple one, not registering when a sparkle of magic released itself into her face when she touched the blossom. A sense of calm washed over her and she sighed quietly to herself as she sat down in a patch of the purple flowers, continuously bringing the petals to her nose and releasing the magic dust from them.

A faint rustling caused her to look up and she smiled at the small boy who padded his way over to her, his small legs shaking slightly as he had obviously just learned to walk by himself and hadn't gotten the hang of it yet. She instinctively caught him as he started to fall right in front of her and cradled him close, her fingers brushing through his wild blonde hair. A small smile formed on her lips when he reached out and grabbed her hand in his tiny one.

"Mama," he happily said, blinking his eyes that were a curiously mismatched. One green and one blue, that reminded her of something, though she couldn't remember what.

Leaning down and pressing a kiss to his head, she quietly replied, "Yes sweetheart, Mama's here."

The little boy made a happy noise and cuddled closer, giggling when she broke off a nearby flower and tickled his nose with it. She was so busy playing with the child that she didn't notice when hours passed and it got dark in the garden, with the exception of the area around her, which glowed brightly. Somewhere along the way she had started to call the boy "Diormid" and to her surprise, he answered her every time she did. A small bird landed on her knee and both Sarah and Diormid took turns petting it and Sarah made up a silly story about a baby bird that seemed to amuse the child. So involved in her story and the child's reactions, she let out a startled cry when a gloved hand roughly pulled her from the flowers and pulled her against a warm body. She struggled and tried to reach for the child that had been left behind, a confused expression forming on her face when she couldn't find him. Looking up at the person who was holding her, Sarah was surprised to see the worried face of the Goblin King staring down at her.

"What… are you doing here, Jareth?" She asked in a confused voice.

"You've been out here for hours, Sarah. Stuck in a dream. Did you not see what Garden you were in?" he gestured with his head to the area around them and Sarah blinked several times until she realized where they were.

"This is the garden where my father gave up," she murmured.

"Yes, and you were dangerously close to giving into the dream yourself," Jareth told her, then looked curiously at the spot where she had been sitting. "What was your dream?"

"You didn't see?"

"I was busy trying to send the magic away from you and pull you up," he said, keeping one hand wrapped tightly around her wrist.

Sarah nodded absentmindedly and looked at the spot where she had been playing with the boy, noting that bits of gold magic still tried to cling to her in spots. She waved it away before leaning into Jareth, relying on him to keep her mind clear of the hazy dreams that were still trying to trap her. Turning her face away from the purple flowers and into his chest, Sarah muttered, "Can you take me back now?"

Jareth nodded and used his magic to bring them to the library in the castle, pulling her down to sit next to him on the couch. She turned her head in the direction she somehow knew the garden was in, her body itching to go back and her feet willing to take her there. The Goblin King seemed to realize this and placed one arm around her shoulders, keeping her firmly against his side.

"Let go of the dream, Sarah," he commanded, using his free hand to grip her chin and force her to look at him. Sarah stared at him with a hazy expression for a minute before she smiled faintly and reached up to touch his cheek.

"Your eyes," she whispered as her thumb slid across his cheekbone. Jareth cursed quietly, causing her to frown and shake her head as he pulled back, his hand moving from her chin to pull away the hand on his face.

"Sarah, focus. Now answer my questions, okay?" At her nod, Jareth asked her name.

"Sarah Williams."

"And where did you live as a teenager?"

"Carolina."

Jareth smiled and released her hand, which dropped down to her lap. "Good. Now, what was your profession?"

"A…teacher. I was a teacher," Sarah said in a confident tone, pulling back a little when she realized how close they were. Her eyes had cleared significantly and Jareth breathed out a sigh of relief.

"Did you once defeat the Labyrinth?"

"Yes, after you stole Toby," she confirmed with a nod.

"One last question," The Goblin King said, his eyebrow raising slowly. "Is that my shirt you are wearing?"

Sarah looked down at her chest and blushed faintly, her fingers moving to play with the hem of the shirt as she nodded. "You said I could borrow things from your closet if you got to see me in them. And well, you're seeing me."

Jareth was about to comment on that when Sarah's stomach grumbled and her hands covered it in embarrassment. Shaking his head, Jareth stood up and held a hand out to her, which she hesitantly took. He pulled her to her feet, then started for the doors. "Come on, your adventures in the Labyrinth have caused you to miss another meal. You'll get sick if this keeps up."

"Or I'll finally fit into my skinny jeans again," Sarah muttered as she walked beside the Goblin King, who gave her a frowning glance but said nothing. The rest of the walk was completed in silence but for the sound of their feet on stone and the creaking of the kitchen door. Jareth pointed to a small table shoved in the corner of the kitchen while he started to pick things from around the kitchen and bring them near the stove. Sarah went and sat on one of the chairs and watched the Goblin King stir the ingredients in a bowl, then dropped them in a pan. She had to hide a laugh with a cough as the image of him in an apron with a silly slogan on it appeared in her head, and got a curious glance over his shoulder from Jareth.

Shaking her head and waving her hand flippantly, Sarah turned her eyes away from the cooking king and raised her eyebrow when she saw a dirty little goblin peeking out from behind a crate. Its eyes went wide when he saw her staring at him and he quickly did a weird ducking ninja roll behind another crate. Smiling softly, Sarah looked away from the crate the goblin was now behind and saw Jareth coming her way, a plate in his hand. As he placed it and a fork in front of her, she gave him a surprised look.

"You know how to make pancakes?"

Jareth frowned and sat down at the table, his arms crossed in front of him. "You don't like pancakes?"

Sarah had to hide another laugh at the pouting look he gave her and picked up the fork. "No, I like pancakes. I just didn't think the Goblin King, Mr. "May Dreams Never Die" would know how to make pancakes."

As she cut a piece from the top pancake, she glanced at Jareth out of the corner of her eyes and had to force herself not to roll her eyes at his pleased expression.

"So you learned the Goblin Kingdom's words, did you?" he asked in a smug tone, his arms uncrossing so he could roll a conjured crystal over his hands.

"Well I thought I should know the words for the kingdom I'll be living in. It's my home now, after all."

Sarah then looked down at her plate to cut another piece of food and entirely missed the triumphant smile that appeared on Jareth's face.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, it's late, but I temporarily lost my muse. Thanks to DarkMoonFox from FanFiction, as always.
> 
> WARNINGS FOR MENTIONS OF CHILD ABUSE.
> 
> Not going to apologize for the content in this, I had a bad day at work where I delt with a mother who did the same thing as the baby in this one.

Sarah wasn't sure what to expect when Amantial departed from the Goblin Kingdom to get her ball ready and invitations sent out, leaving Sarah alone in the castle with only Jareth and the goblins for company. Being rudely interrupted from her book by a sudden teleportation to the throne room where Jareth handed her a crying baby surely was not on the list of what she assumed would happen. As she immediately started to make soothing sounds and gently bounce the baby, she gave the Goblin King a glare.

"Why am I holding a baby, Jareth?"

"He's crying and I have to go deal with his mother and…he's crying!" Jareth said with an exasperated tone and a jerked hand in the baby's direction.

"Well, why is he crying?" Sarah questioned, swaying a little in an attempt to stop the crying.

"No idea. I've sang, I've danced, tried to play with him, tried to feed him! He just keeps bawling!" Jareth looked frazzled and Sarah grinned at the thought of the mighty Goblin King being bested by a baby. Nodding, she waved him away and started to pace around, finally going to sit on the throne when Jareth poofed away in his usual glittering cloud of magic. She didn't blame the goblins for not being in the same room as the baby, for even she was starting to wince at the loud crying that echoed through the room. Taking a chance that it might be a diaper issue, Sarah started to unwrap the baby, but froze at the sight of small, fingertip shaped bruises on the little boy's arm. There was an instant feeling of fury as Sarah stood back up and marched out of the room with the baby still cradled in her arms, looking for any goblin she could find. She finally managed to corner one, and demanded loudly to be told where to find a doctor. The little goblin shook under the force of her glare and stuttered out useless words while Sarah got more irritated. Leaving the goblin to its terror, she went back to the throne room and continued to make soothing sounds while sitting in the throne again, holding the infant as carefully as possible. He had just started to calm down when Jareth appeared in front of them, looking infinitely pleased that the crying had all but stopped. Sarah's narrowed eyes flicked up to Jareth, who blinked in surprise at her expression.

"I don't care what she does, do not let that woman get to the castle. Drop her in an oubliette, throw the cleaners at her. She can't have this baby back. And I need you to go find a doctor or something, the baby's hurt."

Jareth looked completely shocked at the thought of someone hurting a baby and nodded before leaving Sarah and the infant alone again. She gently held him close and started to sing the first lullaby that came to mind, her lips forming a sad smile as the baby stared up at her. She managed to get through one song and started up another when the double doors were pushed open and two people strode in. At first Sarah had thought it was the Runner, but when she caught sight of Jareth, she relaxed again. He had a tall man with him, who immediately crossed the room and placed one pale hand on the infant's head, a glowing blue surrounding his hand. Sarah stayed perfectly still as she stared at the highly focused man in front of her, noting the elongated ears and the non-human purple color of his eyes that matched perfectly with his lilac hair. She waited until he pulled away to look over at Jareth, who actually looked worried and was staring at the baby intently.

"The infant will be fine now, as long as he is placed in good hands," the elf-like man said with a bow in Sarah's direction. "I trust you will take care for now, your Majesty?"

Sarah glanced over at Jareth, waiting for him to respond to the healer before she realized the comment had been made towards her. She quickly stood up and moved away from the throne, her eyes wide. "I'm not, I mean, I had to sit so that I didn't bump the baby and hurt him. It was the only place to sit."

The healer looked between Sarah and Jareth with a frown before he nodded and bowed his head in Jareth's direction. The Goblin King nodded back and tossed an old looking coin to the man before moving to sit on his throne, posture tense and completely different from his usual lounging. Sarah watched nervously as the man looked between her and Jareth again before he turned and left the castle. Jareth waved a hand and the front doors shut with a quiet noise, then he turned his head to look at Sarah.

She winced and bit into her lower lip before blurting out, "I'm sorry, I just needed to sit so that I wouldn't jostle him, and the floor is dirty and I didn't want him near it all."

The Goblin King held up a hand to stop her from saying anything else and smiled faintly, "The throne of a kingdom is not supposed to be sat upon by anyone other than its ruler. However, as your reasons were good, I doubt the Nymph will say anything to anyone."

"And the baby's mom?"

"I'll go deal with her now," Jareth said and pushed himself to his feet. He glanced around the room before conjuring a crystal and tossing it to the floor a few feet away from his throne, where it turned into a comfortable looking armchair. He sent a smirk in Sarah's direction before disappearing with his glittering cloud, causing her to roll her eyes.

"He thinks he's fabulous," she murmured to the baby in her arms as she went to settle on the chair, not caring that the infant was actually asleep by now, his hurts completely erased. "But he's actually a big softie at heart and I saw that he actually cared about you."

She of course got no response, but didn't mind as she brushed a kiss over the baby's forehead.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Jareth walked calmly through his Labyrinth, though fury shone in mismatched eyes as he laid the same trap over and over, anywhere he thought that the Runner might pass by. It wasn't fair by any means and dangerously close to breaking the rules of the Labyrinth, but Jareth didn't particularly care much. Even had Sarah not asked him to keep the Running girl from reaching the castle, he would have laid the worst traps he could think of, though no punishment he could come up with was good enough for someone who would harm a child. It didn't take long for a loud, high scream to ring through the Labyrinth's walls, indicating a trap being set off. The Goblin King smiled cruelly and turned on his heel, disappearing in the blink of an eye to where the girl was. He clad himself in dark clothing with armour that depicted frightening goblins on it to meet the girl, who seemed to be cowering in a corner with a huge black dog standing over her, growling and showing its teeth. It seemed that the girl was afraid of dogs and his nightmare webbing had conjured up one the size of a horse to terrorize her. Jareth watched with cold amusement as the girl shook in terror at the nightmare and let it growl at her for longer than he should have, enjoying the sniffling mess she had become. Waiting until he came dangerously close once again to breaking the rules of the Labyrinth, Jareth finally snapped his fingers and watched as the dog disappeared into the wind like smoke. The girl looked up at him, almost as scared of the imposing figure of the Goblin King as she was of the conjured dog.

"Please, I want to go home. I give up on this. Keep the baby," she whispered, causing a sneer to twist Jareth's lips. He created a crystal in an instant and threw it at the girl, whose hands came up to cover her face on instinct. She needn't bothered, as the second the crystal touched her, it shattered into a burst of magic that sent her back to her bedroom at her house. Satisfied with himself, Jareth used his magic to go back to the throne room instantly; not bothering to take down the nightmare spells in the Labyrinth, where he smiled faintly at the image of Sarah snuggling a baby. Sarah herself caught sight of his smile and gave one of her own in return.

"The Runner gave up," Jareth told her while moving to sit in his throne, adopting his usual lounging position.

"What about the baby?" Sarah asked, unconsciously holding the infant tighter to her chest. "Will you turn him into a goblin?"

Jareth raised an upturned eyebrow and was about to ask where she got that idea when he remembered her little red Labyrinth book. Shaking his head, he flashed a smirk at her. "Contrary to the story, I don't actually turn the wished away babies into Goblins. I give them to fae couples who can't have any children of their own."

"Why can't they?" Sarah questioned, her brows furrowing.

"A lot of fae are infertile. If they don't have enough magic, they can't have a child of their own. So I provide them with a baby to love and care for while also providing an unwanted, wished away child with loving parents," Jareth told her, one hand conjuring a crystal and rolling it around.

"The children, aren't they mortal though?"

"If they are young enough and raised around magic, live in a land filled with magic, they naturally start to absorb it themselves. They become fae and eventually have families of their own, or ask for wished away children to raise. It's all very organized here. We don't have humans running around, with the exception of a few cases like yourself."

Sarah nodded and stood up, the baby cradled carefully in her arms. "Until you find parents for him, we'll be in the library."

Jareth waved a hand in her direction and waited until she left the room to conjure up a large mirror that he placed one hand against after pulling off a glove. He focused his magic on connecting with a mirror that was open to him for reasons like this in the Kingdom of Centaurs. He settled in his throne for the long wait he knew was coming, having experienced this situation many times over. Not only would someone have to answer his mirror call, but they would also have to contact fae in the kingdom that had petitioned Jareth for a Wished Away.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][]

It was hours before Jareth brought the fae couple to the library with him, where he found Sarah reading a book about magic aloud to the Wished Away child, who seemed to be enjoying the sound of her voice. She cut off mid-sentence when she noticed that Jareth and the two fae had come into the room and placed the book aside before bowing her head respectively. Jareth had to hide a smile at her actions and gestured to the young fae to proceed him to the couch where Sarah had been sitting. She stood up and hugged the baby one last time before slowly handing him over to the woman who would become his mother. Sarah seemed pleased by the instant cooing over the baby that the couple started up, along with their thank you's, and smiled over at Jareth, who could only smirk in return. It wouldn't do for rumours of the Goblin King smiling to start spreading around the Underground.

Jareth led the new family back to the mirror portal they had arrived through and ran ungloved fingers over the baby's head, infusing him with the smallest it of magic that would slowly grow before he wished the family happiness and sent them on their way. He made sure to carefully close up the portal before going back to the library and dropping down on the seat next to Sarah, leaning against her slightly to see what she was reading.

"Healing magic?" Jareth questioned as Sarah gave him an unamused glance out of the corner of her eye.

"Yes, I think it would be useful, if one had magic. And did no one ever tell you it's rude to read over someone's shoulder?"

"Can't say they have," Jareth commented and leaned further against Sarah, just to irk her a bit more.

Sarah shut the book and gave him a long suffering look before stating, "I want to take one of my visits Aboveground, if you don't mind."

The Goblin King quickly pulled away from her and held up his hands as if in surrender. "No need to do that Sarah, I promise to back off."

"That's not why I want to," she said and reached out to gently push his hands down. "I like it here, a lot, but the magic everywhere is giving me some really bad headaches. I think a little time spent back Above might do me some good. I'll come back in time for the ball, I promise."

"Sarah, your home in the Above is still occupied by the man you were dating. And your father abandoned you here, so it would not be good to stay with him. Until we can find a place for you. It would be better to stay down here," Jareth tried to reason with her, not wanting to have to send her Above just days after she had gotten back to the Underground.

"I'll stay with my friend and you can come get me if I'm needed or when my time is up. Just give me a few days away from all this… this world is a little intense all at once."

Jareth made a face, but nodded, reluctantly agreeing to send her Above for a while. Her being gone for days almost made the happy hug he received worth it. Almost, but not quite. As he hugged her back, just a shade too tightly for propriety's sake, the Goblin King smiled.

"I'll send you back in the morning, it's much too late Above right now," he murmured quietly into her dark hair,


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to DarkMoonFox from FanFiction for her beta skills.
> 
> Also, there won’t be another chapter after for a few weeks. 1-2 at the most. I’m repainting the outside of my house before the snow comes, then have to repaint the inside. As such, my computer will be unplugged for an unknown period of time while I paint the room it’s in. I apologize for this in advance. I’m getting really sick of the lime green walls the room has though. What the former owners were thinking, I don’t know.

Sarah spent her just-over-a-week Aboveground trying to sort out the gigantic mess that Jareth left for her when he granted her wish and took her to his kingdom. It took several days to convince the police and all her friends that she hadn't been kidnapped, but had been hiding out with a different friend because of Mark's abuse. Watching him get arrested had definitely been the high point of her time Above, though the drinking she did later on with her friend Kade had been close behind. After clearing up the mess and sending her resignation into the school she taught at, Sarah spent a good amount of time in either a coffee induced haze or not as often, a little tipsy. If anyone had asked her, she would have told them it had been a pretty good week, all in all.

There was someone who was not having a good time while Sarah was Aboveground and his goblins were suffering for it. Except for a small goblin who the King seemed to take with him most places and even let sleep on a chair in his bedroom while Sarah was away. Said king was currently sulking on his throne, listening to the little goblin called Ripley sing what the goblin called a "David Bowie" song, which was sung by a mortal who was apparently Sarah's favorite singer. He was tapping his riding crop against his boot, trying to keep Ripley in beat when the goblin mayor ran into the throne room.

"Sire! The goblins are revolting!" the squat goblin shouted out, his arms waving in the air.

Jareth sighed and ran a hand over his face before turning his gaze on the mayor. "Must you always dwell on the obvious? They are positively vile."

Surprisingly, Ripley started to giggle at Jareth's response, which the mayor only spluttered at for several moments before he could get an answer out. "No, your Majesty! They are refusing to come into the castle and do their duties until the Time Out Lady has been returned to the kingdom."

"Tweedledum…"

"Spittledrum, Sire."

"Dragon Dung, get out and tell the goblins if they don't get to work, I'll bog them," Jareth said, then paused before adding, "And then I'll let Lady Sarah put them in Time Out for disobeying the king."

The goblin mayor nodded vigorously before darting out of the castle, falling once on his face, to Jareth's amusement. The Goblin King sighed once more before looking at Ripley, who was smiling like an idiot.

"Thousands of years I've been fine without Sarah here. And so have the goblins. Even after she defeated the Labyrinth and went, we were fine. Now she leaves for a little over a week and everything's gone to hell!" Jareth threw up his hands and got to his feet, then summoned a crystal that would transport him Above, where ever Sarah was staying.

He landed outside of a small house and looked around with distaste at the conditions of the area it was in before he remembered that the clothing styles Above were vastly different than Under. Not wanting to stick out while he fetched Sarah, Jareth used his magic to switch his clothes into the rough feeling blue pants Sarah seemed to favor, which molded against his body almost as well as his leggings did. His open poet's shirt became a blue button down like the shirt Sarah had left on his desk when she took one of his, and he placed his glasses on the end of his nose, as he had seen Labyrinth Runners wear them before as well. He raised a still gloved hand to knock on the door he had appeared in front of and waited the 27 seconds it took for someone to open it.

The male who opened the door gave Jareth an expectant look, which the king had to force himself not to sneer at. "I'm here to see Sarah Williams."

The man nodded and glanced over his shoulder, calling out, "Sarah, there's some dude with some crazy ass chicken hair at the door for you!"

As Jareth held himself back from smiting the man who dared call his hair chicken like, (which it most certainly was not) there was a crash, followed by Sarah calling out "I'm okay!" and finally her running to the door with tangled hair that looked like it had not been brushed all day.

"Jareth! I thought you were picking me up tomorrow?" She said breathlessly as she none too gently pushed the man back and took his place in the doorway.

"I was, but there was a problem and I came to get you early. Like we agreed I could," Jareth replied, leveling a glare at the hovering male behind Sarah.

"Oh right. Just… come in and give me a few minutes to pack up my clothes," Sarah waved him in the house before hurrying down a hallway. The Goblin King slowly made his way through the doorway and stood next to the man, who was staring at him with an amused expression.

"I'm Kade, and you must be the heroic Jared who saved Sarah from Mark," the man, Kade, said and held out a hand to Jareth. Jareth stared at the hand for a few seconds before reluctantly shaking it with one of his own, pulling back the second he could.

"It's Jareth."

"Of course it is," Kade responded dismissively, then smiled brightly at Sarah when she walked back into the room, holding her bag with clothes and her hair still a mess. Jareth reached out and took the bag from her, easily shouldering it while he all but pushed Sarah out the door, barely letting her get a goodbye in. He firmly pulled the door shut behind them while simultaneously freezing time so that Kade wouldn't see them simply disappear from his porch. Reaching out, Jareth grabbed Sarah's hand and brought them directly outside her bedroom in the Goblin Castle.

"Okay, why the rush, Jareth?" She asked as she pulled her hand from his and opened the doors, moving inside the room before beckoning him in. Having been granted an invitation, the Goblin King stepped in after her, placing the bag of her clothes down on the floor.

"The goblins thought I sent you away forever and are refusing to work until I bring you back. So I need them to see you walking around before they start to form mobs and set the city on fire."

"Sarah looked highly pleased at this news and Jareth gave her a small glare when she said, "Well, I can't keep your not-so-loyal subjects waiting can I?"

"Wait," Jareth commanded and grabbed her arm as she tried to leave the room, then directed her to sit in front of the vanity that was near her bed. She looked horrified at the state of her hair, but the expression quickly changed to one of surprise when Jareth grabbed a brush and started to gently move it through her hair, straightening out the rat's nest it was. "You definitely should not go out with your hair in such disarray, dear Sarah."

She nodded and bit into her lower lip, waiting until the Goblin King was finished getting the tangles from her hair to speak up. "No one's brushed my hair since my mother left when I was young. I forgot that I liked it."

Jareth smiled at her through the mirror while setting the brush back down and placing his hands on her shoulders. The dark gloves contrasted with the shirt he was wearing, which Sarah finally seemed to notice. She stood up and looked him over several times, grinning at the outfit he chose.

"Well, you got the hang of dressing like an Abovegrounder pretty quickly," she said appreciatively. The Goblin King smirked and shrugged a shoulder.

"As you remember, I have great fashion sense."

"I'll agree with that. Shall we go calm down your goblins then?" Sarah asked, then took the king's offered arm when he nodded. He took them straight to the center of the Goblin City in the blink of an eye, making a face when a hoard of goblins surrounded them, pulling at Sarah until she bent down to hear them talk to her. She nodded at some of the things they said before gently dismissing them and glancing at their king, who looked amused at their reaction to her.

"What?"

"You're very good at dealing with them," Jareth told her.

"They're like little kids. I'm used to dealing with kids, so I can just use that to deal with goblins," Sarah replied as she straightened up and took his arm again.

"Speaking of things you are used to," Jareth pulled them to a stop and turned to look at Sarah. "You seemed very comfortable at that mortal's house. Is it normal for single men and women to share homes like that?"

"Up there it is," Sarah said with a shrug, then smiled." And technically you and I are sharing a place to live."

"My castle is much larger than his house and it's not like we are sharing a room, Sarah."

"Well that's your fault, isn't it, Mr. Proper?" Sarah smirked and pulled away before quickly moving into the closest goblin store she could find, which happened to be a Cobbler's. Jareth stood out on the street for over a minute before he smirked as well and followed Sarah into the building, moving to stand behind her as she stared at goblin sized shoes, determined not to look at the king.

"Sarah, I don't think those will fit you," he said with an amused smile, one hand moving to rest on her shoulder. She jumped and spun around to face him, a faint flush coloring her cheeks.

"Yeah, you're right." she mumbled, teeth worrying at her lower lip. "Do you think the goblins have seen enough of me so that we can get back to the castle?"

Jareth nodded and led Sarah out of the shop, a grin tugging at his lips the whole way back to the castle, which scared several goblins so much that they ran into their houses and hid under their beds. Sarah made an excuse and went to her room, where she got into the bathtub to clean up; while Jareth followed her up several minutes later and ignoring his usual rule of not going into her room without asking, went inside and sat on the end of her bed. It was there that Sarah saw him, playing with one of his crystal balls while she stood in the doorway with just her towel wrapped around her frame, mouth open in surprise. It was her almost silent squeak that alerted the Goblin King to her presence in the room, and he looked up and gave her an appreciative once over.

"What are you doing in here?" Sarah asked in a much higher pitch than her normal voice.

"Well, you did say you've given me multiple invites," Jareth told her while spinning the crystal on his fingertip, eyes still slowly moving over her towel covered body. "So I decided to take you up on one."

Sarah did an amusing impersonation of a fish before darting for her closet and slamming the door shut behind her. The Goblin King laughed loudly and leaned backwards on her bed, one of his elbows supporting him as he waited for her to reemerge. It took her several minutes but Sarah did eventually come out in a blue dress and started to storm over to her bed until she really took in the sight of the Goblin King laying on her bed, staring at her intently. Slowing her furious steps until she was standing in front of him, fingers gently twisting the material of her skirt, Sarah unabashedly stared down at Jareth, who smirked up at her.

"Hello Sarah," he drawled with amusement coloring his words.

His amusement seemed to irritate Sarah, who quickly glared down at him with a frown pulling her lips down. "Having fun, Goblin King?"

"Oh yes," he murmured with the ever present smirk, one gloved hand lightly running over the duvet on her bed. "I was just trying your bed out to see if I'll be staying in here or moving you to my room."

Color rushed to Sarah's cheeks but she ignored it in favor of crossing her arms. "So you just get to decide that?"

"You are welcome of course, to give your input, but as King I have final say," Jareth said with a lazy flick of his hand.

Sarah's left eye twitched slightly and she took two steps closer to the bed until she was standing over the Goblin King; though she didn't actually know what she was going to do about his statements. She was saved from having to think of something though, when quick as a fox, Jareth reached up and grabbed her arm, then tugged her down on the bed. She landed next to him with a surprised expression and he rolled to hover above her, a smirk twisting his lips as he stared down at her. After giving her several seconds to push him away if she so wished, Jareth leaned down and brushed his lips against hers. It only took a heartbeat for Sarah to respond wonderfully, her lips moving against his and parting without being asked while one of her hands trailed along the open part of his shirt, fingertips just barely ghosting over his skin. When she realized he wasn't pulling away, Sarah grew bolder and slid her fingers down, curling around the waistband of his breeches. Jareth's gloved hand had been tugging at the laces on the front of her dress when he suddenly froze and let out a string of curses. As Sarah stared at him with wide, confused eyes, the Goblin King pulled away and quickly fixed his rumpled clothes.

"Damned Runners," he practically spit out before giving her an apologetic expression and disappearing in a swirl of glitter. As he had gone straight to the Aboveground, somewhere in India, he never heard the frustrated yell coming from Sarah's room.

"Oh come on, seriously?!"


End file.
